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THE ISLES OF SUMMER," 



OE 



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'A listless climata that, where, sooth to say, 
No living wi-ht could work, nor cared e'en to play." 

Thompson's Castle of Indolenco. 



^lln^iXMts^& (BaVilvn. 



3By CHi^E-LiES I'V'E.S, M. J^., 

A SI33IEEK OI" THE NEW HAVES EAK. 



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JMew J^aven, poNN. :• 

PUBLISHED EV THE AUTHOR, 

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■ ■ a)(WCs^ (0 

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the j'ear 1S80, -^ 

Bt CHARLES IVES, ^ 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



£• 



^-/2^g^/ 



nl Hoggson & Robinson, Printers, n] 
LJ New Haven. l^ 



E. B. Sheldon & Co., Electrolypers, 
New Haven. 



; . 



13^ 



TO HIS WIFE, 



/77 



THE COMPANION OF HIS TKAVELS, 



WHO GBEATLY INCEEASED THE PLEASTTEES TO WHICH 



NEW SCENES GAVE BIKTH, 



ENOOUEAGED AND AIDED HIM IN HIS LITERAEY LABOES, 



AND HELPED TO INSPIRE HIS BEST THOUGHTS, 



THIS BDOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DSDIOATBD, 



BY ITS AUTHOR. 



FKEF^CE. 



In offering this book to the reading public the author of the Isles of Summeb 
is not unmindful of the maxim that "silence is golden." But silence is often 
-a grave mistake, and may be a crime. The gift of speech has rendered possi- 
ble the intellectual development which distinguishes the human race. The 
different stages in the progress and perfection of language are the tide marks 
of civilization. Take from man the power to express his thoughts, and you 
degrade him to a beast. There is a time to speak and a time to abstain from 
speaking. More than golden are those gems of thought which inspired genius 
has in by-gone times wedded to imperishable language and given as a rich 
legacy to the ages. But he is a wise man who knows how properly and when 
to address the great public and challenge its attention. The loud din of a 
garrulity stale and insipid, is ever mingled with the elevated and ennobling 
notes of inspired voices. Many of the utterances that evidence man's divine 
origin, to which the Present listens, broke the stillness of dim and distant 
ages in the morning of civilization, while the genius of each succeeding age 
has imparted to the literary air vibrations of itd own, that mingle with those 
of the past, and a great tide of melody that never ebbs, rolls grandly down 
to our own times. 

It would seein to be sufficient for the Present to sit at the footstool of the Past 
and listen. The public ear is not only filled but trained, educated and critical, 
so that a new voice has no more chance of being heard, than a little ripple of 
attracting attention when ocean's great heart throbs with the quickening 
breath of a hurricane. A new book by a new author is like a new leaf amid 
the evergreen and varied foliage of a tropical forest. When one unknown to 
fame, takes his first born literary child in manuscript sheets to any of the 
notable publishers in either of our great cities, the cordiality with which he is 
received is like that with which a tramp is welcomed at the front door of a 
palatial dwelling. The chance that the latter is an angel in disguise, is con- 
sidered -equal to the probability that the former is inspired. In many cases, 



t PREFACE. 

probably in most, the publisher is too busy to even look at the literary bant- 
ling, although, for aught he knows, it is a little, live, genuine literary Moses, 
nestled among the reeds and bulrushes of the river of immortality. 

It sonietimes happens that in the firmament of letters, brilliant with the light 
of stars unfading and quenchless, great intellectual luminaries appear unher- 
alded, 

" WhoBe sudden visitations daze ttie world, 
And flash lilce liglitning ; while they leave behind 
A voice thai in the distance, far away, 
■;■■ Wakens the slumbering ages," 

and, as publisher's are not infallible, and do not hy intuition know every 
thing, it has occasionally happened that they have found out, when it was too 
late, that they have ignorantly confounded these celestial wanderers with the 
countless fire-flies that rise from literary meadows, and disappear with the 
warm summer night that gave them birth and made their short-lived existence 
possible. 

Publishers are book-brokers, or middle men, who bring producers and con- 
sumers together. They are the merchants of literature, and merely dispose 
of the brain crop. Generally indemnified against loss, theirs is the lion's 
share of the profits when profits are realized. Authors, even the most suc- 
cessful, receive but a very small percentage of the profits realized from the 
sale of their works. Great publishing houses accumulate great fortunes ; 
while great authors die poor, and leave to their families only a brilliant and 
enduring name, which is impotent to keep the wolf of hunger from their doors. 
But publishers are to authors a convenience if not a necessity. They supply 
the wings whicli arc required to enable a new candidate for literarj^ honors to 
ascend sufficiently high in the world of letters to be seen. As notable pub- 
lishers have at times fastened to dead weights, they have become exceedingly 
incredulous and cautious, and look with great suspicion upon all who have not 
demonstrated their ability to float and flj^ in the upper air of popular favor. 
As doorkeepers they guard the entrance of that great stage upon which the 
new author must stand in order to be widely known, but they are so chary of 
their favors that only an occasional novice is allowed to tread the boards, and 
take his chance of being hissed or applauded bj^ the great public whose atten- 
tion he presumes to challenge. 

As the author of the Isles of Summer was well aware of these facts, and 
had no standing place in the great world of letters, why did he not continue 



PREFACE. 7 

to devote himself exclusively to the law ? Why did he presume to write a 
book, and having written it, fossilize it with type, and coffin it in gilded 
covers ? 

These questions are legitimate, and they shall be honestly and frankly an- 
swered. 

While treading the deck of a Nev/ York and Savannah steamer, after hav- 
ing been a day or two at sea, and while gazing with a pleasing awe upon an 
ocean mysterious, restless and sky-bound, he heard, like the author of Revela- 
tion, a voice saying unto him "TFnie/" and without pausing to think or 
inquire whether the injunction came from heaven or elsewhere, he obeyed 
with alacrity. It did not appear to be a matter of choice, but of uncontrolable 
necessity. He had taken with him neither ink nor paper, but the ship's 
purser kindly provided him with both and with a seat at his table. When 
the author's pen was fairly started, it was like the artificial leg which an in- 
genious German invented — it could not be stopped ; so he continued to write 
as he traveled, and to travel as be wrote, and this volume is the result. 

Visiting for the first time "the home of summer and the sun," the author 
was constantly surprised and charmed with new phases of that wondrous 
beauty which ever, in the vicinity of the tropics,- rests lilie an atmosphere upon 
sea and land. His nerves were soothed and quieted by a climate which the 
Gulf Stream and trade-winds delightfully tempered and medicated. Lulled, 
soothed, and pleased by such novel surroundings, it was a relief to the mind 
to give expression to its agreeable sensations, and shed some of its thoughts. 
To gratify and amuse his friends at home, many of his impressions and pen- 
pictures were forwarded for publication in the New Haven Journal and 
Courier. They met with unexpected favor, and if his vanity had not, as he 
trusts, departed with his youth, he would have been proud, as he certainly 
was gratified at the warm, hearty and general commendation with which his 
published letters were received. Much enlarged, and to some extent re- 
written, they are now issued in book-form at the request, frequently and ur- 
gently expressed, of many of the readers of his newspaper communications. 
The author has the more readily yielded to these requests because he beli;;ve3 
his book will meet an unsupplied want, there being no work in the market 
which gives the information it contains. A literary tent has only at long in- 
tervals been pitched for a few days upon the Bahamas, and the coral isles 
have yielded to letters very meagre though valuable harvests. Enjoying to 
some extent the fruits of the labors of others, the author has also cropped new 
fields, and while he has not exhausted or very much impaired the fertility of 



g^ PEEFACE. - 

the soil, lie trusts his book will not only minister to the pleasure but be of 
some practical value to those of his fellow citizens who, for any reason, desire 
to avoid the severity of the Aveather at the north during the winter and early 
spring months. It is but a chance seedling, but valuable fruit is sometimes 
found upon trees by the wayside and in hedge-rows which no professional 
pomologist has planted. II in the fruit gardens of literature the Isles of 
Summer shall take root and flourish in the warm sun of popular favor, its 
author will be gratified; and he believes he will not be greatly troubled should 
it be consigned as rubbish to the brush-heap — 

'For he wrote not for money, nor for praise, 
Kor to be called a wit, nor to wear bays." 

He seems to timself not so much an actor as a spectator having little inter- 
est in the result. The freedom of his will has in this matter, to a large de- 
gree, been dominated and controlled by circumstances. The movements of 
the pen which recorded his thoughts seem like yesterday's heart-beats — they 
left so little impression upon mind and memory. 

Seven of the wood cut illustrations in this book, being those which in the 
table of illustrations are numbered respectively 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 13 and 14, are 
by permission of C. H. Mallory and Company of New York, the proprietors 
of the steamship line now running between New York, Nassau and Matanzas, 
copied from an illustrated pamphlet which they have printed for the benefit 
of the patrons of their line. The other wood engravings have been made for 
this work and are with two exceptions from photographs taken in Nassau by 
Mr. J. F. Coonley of New York, The lithographic plates arc from drawings 
made by Mr. J. H. Emerton of New Haven, and are mostly from specimens 
which the author's wife collected in the Bahamas. The author takes pleasure 
in acknowledging his indebtedness to Prof. A. E. Yerrill, of the Sheffield 
Scientific School, for valuable suggestions and for the scientific names of the 
specimens in natural history pictured upon the lithographic plates 

IvESTON, near New Haven, Ct. 
December 13, A. D., 1880. 



CONTENTS. 



Chap. I.— Man and the Migratory Birds. An Ocean Voyage in Mid-Winter. A Wasted 
Snow Storm. A Model Steamer. Savannah. The Route between the Sea-Islands and 
the Mainland. The Cumberland Islands. Ruins of Dungenness. St. Mary's, Fer- 
nandiua. Amelia Beach. Arrival at Jacksonville. Crossing the Gulf Stream. Arrival 
at Nassau p. 1.3 

Chap. II.— A Break-water of Islands, Rocks, Reefs and Banks over 2,000 miles long. The 
Bahama Archipelago. The Gulfs, Sounds and Ship Channels that penetrate and sur- 
round the group. Hidden Chapters of the Earth's Autobiography Discovered by Mod- 
ern Scientists. Monuments of Buried Lands. Ocean Thoroughfares. The Bermudas — 
their Gradual Subsidence p. 31 

Chap. III.— New Providence. Killarney and Cunningham Lakes. Caves and Cave Earth. />^ 
The Mermaid's Pool. Nassau— its Streets, Public and Private Buildings, and Popula- 
tion. The Poor but Happy Negroes. Fort Fiucastle; its Marine Signals. Grant's 
Town and other Suburban Villages. Fort Charlotte; its Subterranean Rooms and 
Charming Outlook. Lunching at the Expense of the British Queen. The Removal of 
the Old Barracks. Fort Montague. A Luxuriant Growth of Titles. The Harbor and 
Barof Nassau. The Breakers. Shells and Shell- work. Nassau's Public Library, p. 43 

Chap. IV.— The Royal Victoria Hotel. Scenes daily witnessed in its Court. Sacred /-^ 
Songs of the Negroes p. 69 

Chap. V.— Flora of the Isles of Summer. Fertilizing Air. Large Trees on the top of 
Stone Walls and in Limestone Quarries. Trees that will not Die and cannot be killed. 
Trees Within Trees. The Monkey Tamarind, the Wild Fig, and the Ceiba or Silk 
Cotton Trees. Thompson's Folly. Palm Trees— the Cocoanut, the African, the Cab- • 
bage and the Palmetto. The India Rubber Tree. The Singing Tree, Tamarind 
Trees, and Trees Valuable for Timber, for Dyes, for their Spicy Bark, and for .Medic- 
inal Purposes. The Natural more Wonderful than the Supernatural. , . p. 79 

Chap. VI.— Fruits and Flowers of the Bahamas. Fruits in Bills of Fare. The Orange, 
the Pine Apple, the Sapodilla, the Cocoanut, the Hog Phim, the Shaddock, and the 
Forbidden Fruit. Other Bahama Fruits. Flowering Trees, Shrubs and Vines, p. 99 

Chap. VII.— Soothing, Languid Air; its Effects. Ambition Dies. The Bahamns not in- 
cluded In the Primal Curse. The Island of Indolence. Soothfd Sharks. Lazy air and 
Lazy blood Putting Insect Plagues to Sleep. Mice and Men alike Affected. A large 



10 CfONTEKTS. 

Fish Story. Sea Turtles Ecsignod to their Fate. Contented and Happy Neo-roes. 
Good Order in Nassau. How a iNIineniuni can be Secured. AirricuUural and Manu- 
factnring Indu-^try not Rno;ed in tlic Uucks. Sugar miliing. Small Islands unfavor- 
able to lutulltctual Development p. 113 

Chap, Till.— Absence of Wild Animals upon Coral Islands. Pleasures of the Chase Un- 
known. Diet of the Aborigines. IIow Alligatora Taste. The Guanas as a Table 
Luxury. They arc Intoxicated with Whistling Music. Vassar Girls Charming 
Turtles. Mountain Crabs. 'J he Hermit Craba Freebootvr. The Lizards; Clanging 
their Color and Hunting Game. Animals upon the Wes". India Islands when Discov- 
ered. Snakes. S. a Turtles. Turtle Shells. IIow Sponges Grow and form Commu- 
nistic Communiiies. The Sponge fisheries. Value and Quantity of Bahama Sponges 
Exported p. 1:^5 

Chap. IS.— Amusements. Small and Isolated Communities thrown upon 1 heir Own Re- 
sources. Vi.-it ofa circus Comijany to Kassau. lis Effecu upon the Negroes. Whist 
and Boating Clubs. Base-bill and I'olo. Miliiary and i\larblc-i. Religion Utilizing 
the Idle Hours. Streets Placarded with Notices of Solemn Fasts. Absence of a Color 
Line in Churches. Amateur Fishing. The Boatmon Canvassingfor Customers. Capt. 
Sampson a Fisher of Men. He Describes and Discusses the Sharks. . . p. 143 

Chap. X.— Yachting in Bahama Waters. Sampson and his Triton. Testing a Sail-boat. 
Searching Outside in a Good Wind for the LiucStorin. Sampsna's Visit; to New York. 
Ilia Experiences and Impressions. lieliable Wind— Delightful Views— Congenial 
Friends. The Log of the I'leasurc Seekers. Kewly Discovered Poets. The Gulf 
Weed. . p. 155 

Chap. XL— Nassau as a Sanitarium. Its Mild and Generally Salubrious Climate. Its 
Freedom from Cold Waves of Air and Cold Currents of Water. Its Vulnerable Points. 
No Absorbing and Filtering Sands. Impurities Endangering its Water Supply and 
Poisoning the Air. A High Degree of Heat in the Sun. Di-eases upon the Islands. 
^mall but Crowded Human Ant Hills. The Yellow Fever in Nassau in 1S80. Tho 
Pestilence in other Neighboring Cities at Other Times. -The Angel of Health Rides 
Upon Hurricanes. Cleansing the City. Constant Vigilance and Activit}' of Nassau's 
Board of Health Essential toits Safety. Who may Ilopcfor Relief and Cure in Nassau. 
Not the Best Place in which cither to be very Sick or to Die. Frost a Factor in the 
Problem of Civilization. Human Development and Progress Dependent upon Ice. 
Sea Bathing all Winter p ITl 

Chap. XII.— Corals and Coral Reefs. The Marvelous JJcanfy of the "Marine Garden." 
Its Corals, Coralines, Gorgonias, Alga;, Sponges and ^\'onderrully Colored Fishes. 
Water Glasses. Natural Aquaiiums. Coral Bowers and Grottoes. Sea Urchins, 
The Colored Divers. Lfe in the Rock p. -209 

Chap. XIII.— The Extent of the World of Waters and its Wonderful Fauna. Bahama 
Fishes. Sr.me Eminently Distinguished for their Brilliant Colors, and Others for 
their Singularity, described. Fish that arc Poisonous. Tabic Fish. The Bahamas 
Rich in Beautiful Mollusks. They Harmonize with the other Esqusite Forms of Life 



C6XTE]!tTS. 11- 

and mth the Brilliant Waters. The Shores Paved with Shells Wonderfal In Form 
and Color. The Conch. , p. S25 

Chap. XIV.— Moonlight and Starlight in the Bahamas. New Ucavens. The Crescent 
and the Cross. The Starry Cross of Southern Skies. Midnight Watchings, with their 
Eesults. . p. 241 

Chap. XV.— The Coral Isles the- Home of Beautiful Birds. Their Scarcity in Nassau and 
Its Causes. The Necessity of Le<ra] Enactments to Protect the Birds. The Flamingo. 
The Bahama Mocking Bird. A Brief Account of the Visitant and Resident Birds of 
the Bahamas, .....,..,,,,, p. 847 

Chap. X\^.— The Influence of the British Court and Aristrocracy upon the People of 
Nassau. The Landing of Prince Alfred upon the Island of New Providence. Nassau 
and the British G vcrnment During ihc Late War of thj Rebellion. Blockade Run- 
ning. Nassau Practically a Coiifederate Port. International Laws Construed and 
Enforced, so as to Greatly Damage the United States. Fortunes Rapidly Made, Squan^ 
dered and Lo-t. Wild Excitement and Great Dissipation. Great Increase of Disease 
and Crime in Nassau. . . . . . ... . , . . p. 263 

Chap. XVII.— The Bahama Constitution. Opening of the Colonial Legislature. Imposing 
Ceremonies. The Negroes Made Happy. The Governor and his Military Guard of 
Honor. "Parliament" Prorogued. Martial Music and Booming Cannon. Engrossed 
Bills Approved and Signed. Small Annu:il Crops of New Laws. No Color Line in the 
House of Assembly. Wrecks and Wrecking iu the Bahamas. Salvors and Salvage, 
Bahama Hurricanes p. 275 

Chap. XVTIL— The Social Life of Nassau. Society Pervaded by Natural Chrystalizing 
Laws. English Forms and Titles well Rooted. Citizens of the Griat Republic Am- 
bitious to Mix and Mingle in High-toned Society. Social Gayeties— Picnics and Balls, 
Wine and Waltzing, the "Sound of Revelry at ^'ight." Hi-hways Made and Repaired 
to Accomodate the Victims of a tio Generous Hospitality. A Governor who Appre- 
ciates the Dance, and docs r ot L'^ndercslimate the Value of His Titles. A Doctor of 
Divinity Made Happy. In What Places Hospitality is Indiijenous. , . p. 287 

Chap, XIX.— The First Great Voyage of Columbus. He Solves the Dark Problem of the 
Ages. His Landfall. The Who!e Group Made Forever Memorable. The Spirits of 
Columbus and Ulack Beard Indelibly Impressed Upon the Islands. Emiuently Good 
and Bad Men 'Not Dead When They Die. The Natives As Columbus Found and De- 
scribed Them. The West India I^rlands Occupied by Substantially One People. The 
Caribs. The Search Among the Bahamas for the Fountain of Youth, . p. 293 

Chap. XX.— Spanish Perfidy and Cruelty. The Natives by Force and Fraud are CaiTied ' 
to Hispaniola and Perish iu its Mines. The Islands without Inhabitants. An English 
Captain Discovi rs New Providence. George HI of England makes a Royal Grant of 
the Bahamas to Six Proprietors. Pirates Infest th« Inlands. Black Beard. He Es- 
tablishes Himself Upon New Providence. The Early Governors. Summary Punish- 
ment Inflicted by the Spaniards, and by the French and Spaniards. Nassau Built and 



1^^ C6iS"TeW^. 



Named in 1694. The British Government Purchase the Proprietary Title to the Islands. 
Nassau is Captured and Abandoned by the Americans Under Commodore Hopkins . 
In 1781 it is Captured and Garrisoned by the Spaniards. It is Re-taken by American 
Loyalists. The Abolition of Slavery . p. 313 

Chap. XXI.-^Nassau Revisited. Lack of ConfTdence in the Northern March. Missing 
Trunks; Man and His Clothes. The New York and Nassau Steamboat Line. The 
Western Texas. Notable Passengers. The Fountain of Youth on Litchfield Hill. 
Femandina. Picturesque Shores. Sea-birds. The Mouth of the St. John's. The Bar 
and Breakers. A Visit to St. Nicholas. Incidents and Scenes in the Gulf of Florida. 
"Bank Sharks." Porpoises. Crossing the Gulf Stream. Dolphins. Sun-eet Views. 
Arrival at Nassau , , , . . . . , p. 327 . 

Chap. XXII — Pleasant Return Voyages. Waiting in Florida the Arrival of Summer at 
- the North. Making Apologies to a Tropical Sun. The Steamer City of Austin— Capt. 
Stevens. A Leaf from the Chapter of the Captain's Nautical Experiences. Little 
Sankey Transported and Transplanted. Reciprocal Welcomes. . . , p. 349 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

WOOD ENGRAVINGS. 

1. Frontispiece— View from high ground back of Nassau. 

2. Map. pp. 12-13. 

3. Screw Steamer City of Savannah, pp. 16-17. 

4. Glass Window at Harbour Island, pp. 32-33. 

5. Fort Fincastle. pp. 50-51. - > y , cT 

6. View in Grant's Town. pp. 56-57. ' ' ' 

7. View from Fort Fincastle. pp. 64-65. 

8. The Roj'al Victoria Hotel, pp. 72-73. 

9. The Cciba or Silk Cotton Tree. pp. 90-91. 

10. Shore View west of Nassau, pp. 112-113. 

11. Nassau from Hog Island, pp. 160-161. 

12. George Street and the Government House, pp. 288-289. 

13. A Private Residence in Nassau, pp. 296-297. 

14. Bay Street, west end of Nassau, pp. 312-313. 



LITHOGRAPHS. 



15. Bahama Reptiles, pp. 1,30-131. 
16. 

17 
18, 
19 
20 



Sponges, pp. 140-141 
Corals. ) „,,. .-,,.. 

Flexible Corals. fPP''^'"-''- 
Echinoderms. pp. 224-225. 
Fishes, pp. 232-233. 



21. Biihama Fishes, pp. 2,32-2;33. 

22. Squid. Octopus, pp. 234-235. 

23. Bahama Shells. J pp2g„_233_ 

25. Flamingo, pp. 218-249. 

26. Dolphins, pp. 344-345. 



CHAPTER I. 

Man and the Migratory Birds. An Ocean Voyage in Mid-winter. A 
Wasted Snow Storm. A Model Steamer. Savannah. A Pleasant run be- 
ticeen the Sea-Islands and the Mainland. The Cumberland Islands. Dun- 
genness. St. Mary. Fernandina and its Amelia Beach. Ariival at Jack- 
sonville. Crossing the Gulf Stream. Landing at Nassau. 

"The sails were filled, and fair the light winds blew, 
As pleased to waft him from his native land." — Bteon. 

Nature's special favorites are the birds. With the speed of 
the Avind, and a flight almost as noiseless, they ever follow Sum- 
mer where she leads, bask in her sunlight, and repose in her 
grateful shadows. As Winter, snow-clad ajid frozen, advances 
or retreats, they follow in his footsteps, and sport in the forests of 
verdure, and in the fields and bowers of bloom, that soon clothe 
his track of desolation with wondrous beauty. 

What nature denied, man has acquired for himself — a speed 
superior to thai; of the birds and outstripping the wind. His 
thoughts travel with the lightning, and, practically, space is 
almost annihilated by his steam chariots upon iron roads. 

Science, meanwhile, has explored and mapped the great ocean 
world, sounded its profoundest depths, discovered and described 
its shoals and rocks and Avinding shores, and, wedded to mechan- 
ical ingenuity, has enabled man, in the glowing language of the 
east, to •• take the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost 
parts of the earth." 

13 ^ 



14 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

Hence, after tlie dwellers in the nortli have eacli in liis genera- 
tion for untold thousands of years been snow-bound and ice- 
anchored, their descendants in our day are able at winter's 
approacli, to migrate with the birds, and thus secure perfect 
exemption from its discomforts. To many, suffering from dis- 
ease, or with blood which age has made sluggish, this is a great 
boon. 

In the winter of 1S79, and again in 1S80, the author influenced 
mainly by sanitary considorations, fled from frost to the islands 
of unending summer, spending sometime in Florida wlien going 
and returning in 1879, and again on his way home in 1880. The 
knowledge he was thus enabled to acquire, is in part contained 
in those pages. Most of his notes upon Florida may perhaps 
form the ground work of a future volume. 

On a clear morning in January, A. D. 1879, the author looked 
out of his office wnidow upon ISTcw Haven's beautiful " Green," 
and saw its noble elms in their maturity, lifting their long bare 
brown arms towards heaven as if in supplication, while a white 
and beautiful carpet of snow revealed the shadows and reflected 
the sunlight. Three driys afterwards, he sat upon the deck of 
an ocean steamer, in a pleasant summer atmosphere, within one 
hundred and fifty miles of the city of Savannah, with nothing 
in view but the blue dome of the sky, the restless ocean waves, 
and some daring sea birds which hovered high in air above the 
steamer's foaming track, and watched with their telescopic eyes, 
and waited for their share of the noon-day meal. The contrast 
was most striking; the change from a life of care and of continu- 
ed moil and toil, to a state of calm and peaceful rest, was as 
agreeable as it was marked and sudden. But life i^ivAi of start- 
ling and unexpected contrasts. Tliere is seemingly no stability 
but instability, nothing constant but unrest. Change itself be- 
comes changeless in its unvarying mutability. 



A 3nD--WINTEE OCEAN' VOYAGE. 15 

Friday has acquired a bad name, csioecially among those "who 
have their ''home npon the rolling deep." But for the author, 
it had no terrors — loarticularly as he never made it a matter of 
conscience to keep its fasts or to diet exclusively upon its fish, 
lie did not therefore hesitate to take passage on board the steamer 
Elm City for JSJ'ew York, on Friday evening, the 17th of January, 
A. D. 1879, Never in summer' did he more comfortably pass 
over Long Island Sound, or a^vakon after it feeling more invigor- 
ated and refreshed. A short v/hile previous the little light snow- 
flakes had noiselessly fallen upon the great city of New- York^ 
effectually barricaded its immense net work of streets and ave- 
nues, and more effectually held it in subjection than could a 
great and powerful army Avitli banners. With a feeling of great 
relief wo soon exchanged its dirty and slippery sidewalks for 
the busy deck and luxurious saloons of the screw steamer City 
of Savannah, a floating palace of the sea. 

At about half -past three o'clock, p. m., on Saturday, the 18 th 
of January, we left pier No. 43, North Eiver, steamed down 
the harbor of Ncav York, between the pleasant but then cold 
shores of Long Island and New Jcrse}^ into the broad Atlantic, 
and fancied its gentle, murmuring, dancing and slightly foam- 
crested waves gave us a triendly greeting, and as warm a Avelcomo 
as was possible at that frigid season of the year. 

At the mention of a winter's voyage, before a blazing fire or 
near a comfortable steam radiator, one involuntarily shudders, 
shivers and recoils. But had we not just got to the end of a 
long series of storms, and iierce, cold winds ? Had not the wind 
god of winter exhausted himself, and vv^ould he not now stop to 
take breath? "We thought so, and soon found that wo were right. 
Saturday afternoon and night the Atlantic Avas in one of its mild- 
est moods. Sunday the wind took us directly aft, rounded out 
our foresail, foretopsail and foregallant sail, billowed the water's 



16 ISLES OP smrMEE. 

surface just enough with snow-white crests to please the eye, but 
not enough to awaken feelings of danger even m timid minds. 
The clouds gradually thickened overhead, a few snowflakes with 
seeming reluctance noiselessly descended, and were instantly lost 
in the mysterious depths of the ocean — for a snowflake and a 
steamship are alike insignificant so far as old ocean is concerned. 
Soon we experienced the pleasure of seeing, what is not very often 
witnessed, a heavy snow storm off the capes of Virginia, and it 
seemed so queer to see the snow fall hour after hour and leave 
not a trace behind. ISTo rocks, no shrubs, no evergreen trees 
were glorified by it, but ocean, with cold indifference, received 
this gift from heaven unmoved and unaffected. Earth may well 
welcome the snow storm which protects and saves its priceless 
floral treasures,' =but what is the use of wasting snow storms upon 
the ocean? 

At half-past six o'clock on the evening of January 19th, the 
snow storm being over, Ave saw at a distance of some fifteen miles, 
the revolving light of Hatteras. Can it be, we inwardly ex- 
claimed, that this is the place that navigators of the sea would 
be so glad to avoid ; the home of the strongest and most fitful 
winds, and of wildest storms; a place loved only by wreckers? 
Our steamship still spread her sails to the wind, and her rocking 
was so gentle that not a passenger's seat was empty at the supper 
table. It Avas not long before spittoons commenced a game of 
ten-pins upon the floor of the main saloon, the wind howled and 
hissed at us as it passed; the propeller uttered its cry of alarm, 
as, in the rolling and pitching of the vessel, it protruded out of 
the water; strong men staggered and reeled, while during the 
short momentary intervals of comparative repose, they moved 
from one holding-on place to another; the ladies sought refuge in 
their state-rooms, and, devoutly thankful that he had not broken 
any of his or his fellow-passengers' bones, the author soon fol- 



A MID- WINTER OCEAl^ VOYAGE. 1? 

lowed tlieir good example. We were steaming away from. Plat- 
teras, when the demon of the stormy cape sent some of his 
specimen blasts after ns. Our captain deemed it best to " lie 
to" aAvhile until that "'little spell of weather" was over. 

During the night nearly all the passengers were more or less 
sick, and the cold Avas sufficient to freeze water on the deck of the 
steamer from stem to stern. The next day the weather was all 
that could b® desired ; the atmosphere calm, agreeably cool and 
bracing, while the sea was as smooth, quiet and peaceful, as if it 
had not yet been awakened from a night of profound repose and 
quiet sleep. 

The " City of Savannah " is one of a line of steamers built and 
owned by the Georgia Central Railroad Company, for the trans- 
portation of passengers and freight between Savannah and N"ew 
York. At an expense of one million of dollars — being one-fifth 
of its capital — it secured the building at Chester, Penn., of four 
steamei's, named respectively, the "''City of Macon," the " City 
of Columbus," the *•' Grate City," and the '' City of Savannah." 
They are all substantially alike, and the last was placed upon the 
line in the summer or fall of 1878, and the first about a year 
previous. 

Our steamer was almost a novice upon the ocean. A few months 
before in the State of Pennsylvania, and from the west bank of 
the river Delaware, it first took to the water. Yet how grandly, 
with an air of conscious power, it made its way over the path- 
less, fathomless and boundless sea ! When no land-m^arks are 
seen upon the horizon's verge, and no guiding stars in the sky, 
it still speeds confidently and unerringly on its way over the 
trackless wilderness of water. 

Born to an inheritance of labor, the author experienced a new 
sensation — he had nothing to do. He determined therefore to 
make the acquaintance of the ship, and thus utilize some of his 



1^ ISLES OF SUMMEE. 

leisure lioui^s. "No expense was apparently spared to make it in 
all respects first-class, and in it are embodied the latest and best 
improvements and appliances of marine architecture. 

The length of the Savannah, measuring fifteen feet from the 
water line, is 260 feet ; its length over all is 275 feet. It is 38 
feet 6 inches beam molded. Her dejDth from base line to tip of 
spar deck is 26 feet 10 inches ; depth of hold 24 feet ; total dej^tli 
below spar deck 75 feet. Her registered tonnage is 2,092 iVir 
tons. She can carry at one time 4,000 bales of cotton. She has 
three decks besides the hurricane deck. The sjjar deck is entirely 
of iron ; the main deck is partly of iron, and the deck frames 
are all of iron. She was at first brig-rigged, and could spread 
5,000 yards of canvass; but the s^Dars-on the mainmast have 
been taken down, as it was found that they were not needed, so 
that now her rigging is that of a hermaphrodite brig. 

The dining saloon is located aft the main hatch on the main 
deck, and is 50 feet by 29 feet at a distance of 30 feet from the 
main stairway. Aft of and near the dining saloon, is the 
main saloon with rows of state-rooms ; each state-room is ele- 
gantly and conveniently fitted up, and has a window looking 
out upon the ocean. A small saloon over the dining saloon is 
called ^'social hall," and being so fortunate as to have a room 
Avhich opened into this " hall," the author is able to testify that 
''social hall" is decidedly the best part of the ship. There is 
another saloon with state-rooms aft the main hatch, but it is 
much less desirable than the other two. 

The saloons are elaborately and most beautifully finished 
with the choicest woods that money could secure. The natural 
grain has been preserved and the polished surfaces are as hard 
and smooth as glass. Cherry, mahogany, black walnut, bird's 
eye maple, tulip wood and amaranth are so combined as to pro- 
duce the best esthetic effect, and one never tires looking at and 
studying them. 



DESCRtMtOK' 01' STEAMER. 19 

Eacii state-room is proyided with roomy bertlis, first-class 
spring matrasses, and patent wash slabs and bowls, Avith conve- 
nient fixtures, — the latter superior to any we had ever seen. 
Stationary chairs, with revolving backs, along the dining tables 
are a very desirable improvement. 

The engines of this great steamship are a credit to the age in 
which we live. As tide-marks of intellectual development and 
monuments of man's dominion over matter and over the hidden 
and latent forces of nature, they far transcend the pyramids that 
have excited the wonder and admiration of the world for thous- 
ands of years. While propelling us through the ocean at the rate 
of thirteen miles an hour with a 1,650 horse power, there was 
almost no noise, and every part is so perfectly adjusted that the 
motion of the vessel was as gentle as the rocking of a cradle — 
indeed, more so, for the author found no more difficulty in writing 
at a table in the purser's room, within six feet of the engines, 
than he would at a table in any private house. 

Her boilers, tubular cylindrical, are four in number, each 12 
feet 8 inches in diameter, and 10 feet 6 inches in length. The 
working pressure is 80 pounds to the square inch. The stroke 
of the pistons is 54 inches. 

The ship has a i^atent condenser of 3,000 feet condensing 
surface, by means of which her supply of Croton water taken 
in at JSTew York is vaporized and condensed constantly during 
the voyage, thus avoiding the necessity to a great extent of using 
sea water, and making a very great saving of the boilers, fuel, 
and labor. 

The propeller has a diameter of 14 feet 3 inches, and it makes 
70 revolutions per minute. It is of the Hirsch patent, and has 
four blades, which are so fastened that they can be removed 
when necessary. 

It is interesting to see in how many ways steam power is 
brought into requisition to save labor on this ship. Two donkey 



-S>0 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 

engines are used for clearing the bilge and for some otlier pur- 
poses ; three or four for loading and unloading cargoes ; one 
for the anchor and the sails ; one in part for supplying "water 
closets with water; one for operating a steam steering apparatus; 
one for operating a newly devised governor, which so controls 
and governs the propeller that it cannot make more than a cer- 
tain number of revolutions per minute. This last takes the place 
of a man who had formerly to devote all his time to this work. 

These engines are in addition to the main engine for pumping 
out the ship. . There are six water tight iron compartments in 
the ship, and if one should be stove in or should spring a leak 
from any cause, the others would float her while the great cir- 
culating pump of the condenser would be brought into requisi- 
tion, whose power to discharge water is very great. 

The crew number forty-seven, and the monthly pay-roll is 
"about $2,000. The powerful and complicated machine requires 
constant watchfulness and the greatest care. To lubricate it 
one and one-half barrels of oil are used every trip. The aver- 
age consumption of coal is 130 tons for a round trip. The aver- 
age length of the voyage is from fifty-live to sixty hours. The 
Savannah has once gone from dock to dock in fifty-two hours 
and thirty minutes. 

The regular sea route from New York to Savannah is not 
through any part of the Gulf Stream, that immense river of 
warm water, a thousand times larger than the Mississippi, which 
flows in a cold water bed, and helps to temper the severity of 
the frigid and frozen North ; but between that great and, as yet, 
inexplicable phenomenon of the ocean, and its beautifully wind- 
ing western shore, our steamer grandly plowed its way. Like 
the "shining shore"' of the ''better land,'' we well knew, that 
although invisible to our material eyes, it was near at hand. 
This passmg in a few hours from ice-bridged rivers with snow- 



SAVAITFAH EIVEE. SI 



enslirondcd banks to fields of perennial grcen^ so 'forcibly syni-^ 
bolizes man's ioassage over the river of death, that the author 
sometimes more than half believed that ho had indeed raado the 
journey to that mystic realm between v/hich and earth the travel 
is all one way. " 

We approached the bar off the mouth of the Savannah river 
in the morning twilight of January 21st, passing quite a number 
of ships at anchor in the offing. From prudential reasons our 
captain so timed the steamship's progress that we crossed tho 
bar at high tide. As we entered the river, we turned to waft 
upon the mild and gentle air a silent but heartfelt blessing to- 
old ocean for having treated us so well during our voyage, and 
we inwardly hoped that nothing in the future would occur to 
make us like each other less. 

The color of the waters of the Savannah river closely resembles' 
that of a New Haven mud-puddle, and after leaving our New 
York steamer and its excellent Croton water, it was a constant 
study with us how not to drink it, there being but a small and 
inadequate supply of condensed water on our next steamer. We 
approached the city between low sedgy meadows, some of which 
are utilized for the cultivation of rice. Forts, with their large 
guns still in sight, and low mud batteries, remain to keep alive 
the memory of the recent '^ unpleasantness," while new saw-mills, 
large lumber yards, spacious warehouses, bales of cotton, barrels 
of resin and turpentine, twenty-five or thirty first-class ships 
and three-masted schooners moored to wharves— all a mile below 
the city and near the eastern terminus of a branch of the Gulf 
railroad, told of northern capital and enterprise, of the healing 
and healthy influences of peace, and of a growing feeling of 
fraternity between those so recently engaged in a life and death 
Gtrnggle for the mastery in tlie dreadful ordeal of battle on sea 
and land. Everything was so quiet and peaceful, it was hard to 



2^ ISLES OF SUMMER. 

realize that that whole section was so recently a vast military 
camp, ruled and governed by a despotism such as only war 
necessitates and breeds. Although defeated, it must be a grateful 
luxury for the southern people to inhale the glorious air of free- 
dom once more, undisturbed by war's alarms, and battles whose 
very victories were purchased at a cost of evils only equaled by' 
their defeats. 

The few hours that intervened between the arrival "of one 
steamer and the sailing of another, were pleasantly occupied in 
making a cursory examination of Georgia's principal seaport. It 
is a city of parks — some twenty or more we believe, in all, great 
and small, so arranged that some one of them is within easy ac- 
cess of every citizen's dwelling. The avenues, pleasantly shaded, 
turn every two blocks to the right and left, and surround emer- 
ald parks — reminding one of the rivers of Florida, those blue' 
ribbons upon which the jewelled lakes are strung. The largest 
and most beautiful of the parks upon Bull street, is the '' Pulas' 
ki." Semi-tropical trees of large size and luxuriant foliage, some 
festooned and draped in gray moss, gave it a very attractive ap- 
pearance. A large new park has been laid out and enclosed," 
adjoining this, called the Pulaski Extension, upon which a large 
and handsome confederate monument has been erected. We 
were pleased to see no evidence anywhere of the ruin and waste 
that so often mark the bloody footsteps of war. Sherman's 
grand march to the sea rendered the city's surrender without a 
struggle an inevitable necessity. Its forts and batteries were of 
no use with a large victorious army entering its back door. 

The tourist at Savannah, bound for Florida, can make the 
journey in a few hours by railroad, or go by either of two lines 
of ocean steamers, one of which takes the route outside the 
islands, and the other avoids the hazards of the opsn sea and the 
discomforts of sea sickness, by passing between the coast-islands 



THE IKSIDE BOUTE. 23- 

and the mainlaad. As time was of little consequence to us, we . 
concluded to take the latter. 

. The people of the north, -during the late war, were made ac- 
quainted with the fact that the Southern Atlantic States have 
their sea coast protected by a long succession of islands, between 
which and the main land steamers of light draft can safely pass 
along their whole extent, as far south as the mouth of the St. 
John's in Florida. Batteries, torpedoes, shoals and tortuous 
and intricate channels protected this portion of the southern . 
seaboard, so that our navy found it impossible to destroy or 
seriously cripple confederate communication by water along this 
portion of the coast. One needs to go through these inside chan- 
nels to fairly comprehend them. We think of the Connecticut 
coast shielded by Long Island, but along a portion of the coast 
of Georgia, instead of a Sound thirty miles wide, we have narrow 
and winding water-ways more like Mill river at the base of East 
Eock. We took the side- wheel steamer '^'Cifcy of Bridgeton " at 
Savannah for Jacksonville in Florida — a boat that brought to 
mind the steamers of the New York and New Haven line ''long, 
long ago.'* It has since been modernized and very greatly im- 
proved, so much so that we recognized this year very little of the 
old boat except its name, and even that gloried in a sort of new 
birth. 

Following the doublings and sharp curves of the inside route, 
as we neared the river St. John's the colored man at the 
wheel required and exercised constant vigilance and the greatest 
care. Much local knowledge and great practical skill were 
brought into constant requisition, and only once was the bow 
of the boat run into the soft bank. The shores of the sedgy 
marshes were white with extensive beds of oyster shells, while 
countless beds of small oysters Avere everyAvhere to be seen as the 
tide receded. Occasionally we passed islands rich with tropical 



24 ISLES OF SUiI3IEIl. 

vegetation, where nature seemed to be reveling in a perfect "wil- 
derness of beauty, and nothing was wanting, unless perhaps an 
occasional rocky bluff and mountain peak to give more variety 
and sublimity to the scene. The clear sky and balmy air were 
in perfect accord with the beautiful panorama that opened con- 
stantly before us as we glided over the quiet water. Towards 
the lower end of this charming route, near the close of day, the 
whole blue dome of heaven, Vv^ith all its rich adornment of sun- 
set clouds gorgeously illumined, was more perfectly reflected in 
the still clear water than the author ever saw it before — save 
once only on the river St. John's, in the British province of Isew 
Brunswick. That surpassed anything of the sort he had ever 
seen or conceived, and this, on th.Q whole, excelled that, for soon 
the side-wheels of the boat caused great circling eddies- of skies, 
frescoed and wonderfully and indescribably colored, to follow 
the steamer, until gradually, as the daylight vanished, this re- 
markable phenomenon passed away — remaining, however, indel- 
ibly pictured upon the memory. 

As we neared Fernandina, we passed the Great and Little 
Cumberland islands. The largest is said to be from twenty-five 
to thirty miles long, and two to three miles wide. It abounds 
with game, including hundreds of deer, while fish are very 
abundant in the surrounding waters. 

In full view from Cumberland Sound, which separates it from 
Fernandina, still stand the roofless and windowless walls of what 
was once one of the most splendid residences of the Southern 
States and perhaps of the New World. Deserted by its owner 
during the war, some miscreant's torch made it a ruin. 

This island has a history, and romance and poetry will un- 
ctoubtcdly licrcafter draw from it inspiration. It Avill live in 
deathless song and enduring story. It lies between the calm 
and healthy waters like an island of the blessed, and the soft 



DUNGE]S"I<fESS. THE AMELIA BEACH. 25 

zephyrs that pass over it, born of the not distant ocean, box'row 
perfumes from its aromatic trees, its spicy bowers and sweet- 
scented flowers. 

The State of Georgia, as a token of gratitude to General 
Nathaniel Greene, of revolutionary fame and memory, conveyed 
to him one-half of the island. He died too soon to derive much 
benefit from a gift which reflected back a pleasing lustre upon 
the donors. The Creneral's widow married a wealthy man by 
the name of Miller, who made the island his home and spent his 
money most lavishly in erecting a palatial mansion, opening 
splendid drives, laying out the grounds, and adorning them with 
all the choice trees and flowers that are found or can be made to 
live in the vicinity of the tropics. 

The place is called ''Dungenness." Upon the island are the 
remains of " Light Horse Harry Lee," one of the heroes of 1776, 
and the father of General Lee, the Commander-in-Chief of the 
late Confederate armies. Excursion parties visit Dungenness 
from Fernandina frequently, and in the future it will no doubt 
grow in popular favor. We visited the island the present year 
but defer, for the present, a more particular descrijition of it. 

The Bridgeton made a detour for the purpose of stopping at 
St. Mary, situated near the mouth of the river of that name 
which constitutes in part the dividing line between Georgia and 
Florida. In the palmy days of the Georgia planters St. Mary 
was quite a place of fashionable summer resort, and considerable 
money was spent upon its docks, avenues, buildings and gardens. 
But it suffered severely during the war, its docks and warehouses 
were destroyed, and not much remains to indicate what it has 
been. Its climate, cooled by the ocean, is said to be very fa- 
vorable to health. 

Our steamer stopped at Fernandina just long enough to enable 
us to ride through its streets, upon one of which we were pleased 

3 



26 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 

to see the recently raised frame for one new house, as evidencing 
the fact that enterprise is here awakening, though very slowly, 
from its long sleep. We rode a mile over a sandy road through 
a thicket of palmettoes and wild vines and bushes, beyond the 
*'city," to its famous Amelia Beach, which is one of the finest 
ocean beaches we have seen. For eighteen or twenty miles the 
white beach of a uniform character extended, the dip being so 
gentle that a wide belt was left between the sand hills and low- 
water mark, which the incoming ocean tides had jDounded and 
compacted until bat little impression was made upon it by the 
hoofs of our horses. The shoals near the shore caused the waves 
to break into stretches of Avhite spray crests, and gave a pleasing 
variety to the ocean view. The gentle waves, as they approached, 
rolled up as they reached the shore, and adorned the extreme 
edge with a beautiful white border of foam in an unbroken line 
of many miles. The mildness and softness of the air, and the 
pleasing and soothing murmur of the water, so gently rolling 
in upon the Avhite sand beach, almost as far as the eye could see, 
caused us to prolong our stay to the very last minute of our 
allotted time. The hard, smooth beach of Fernandina, with its 
unobstructed ocean view on the one side, and sand hills on the 
other, as we saw it then, will ever occupy a sunny spot in our 
memory. 

It was eleven o'clock at night when we reached the Windsor 
Hotel, at Jacksonville ujion the St. John's river, thankful that 
thus far our ocean trip in midwinter had been so extremely pleas- 
ant, and that nothing had occurred to give us a moment's uneasi- 
ness. It is true, the same kind Providence would have been over 
us had we made our journey by land, but some persons who came 
that Avay, seemed more inclined to the opinion that in the con- 
struction and operation of southern railroads some evil genius 
had been permitted to have things pretty much his own way. 



THE GULF STKEAM. 27 

With the return of j)rosperity under the banner of peace, im- 
proved and more safe communication by rail will follow as a 
necessary consequence. 

After spending a few days in Florida (rendered necessary by 
the fact that no opportunity existed for sooner continuing our 
journey) we at last were able to cross over to Nassau on the side 
wheel steamer Secret. The passage occupied fifty-two hours. 
She was advertised to make the run in thirty-six hours, but the 
time was purposely understated in order to make the trip appear 
more attractive to the seekers of health and pleasure. The Secret 
was about fifteen years old, English built, sheathed outside with 
iron and was constructed somewluit after the model of a Connec- 
ticut river shad, being very long and very narrow. According to 
a Jacksonville newspaper, her length was 231 feet, and her breadth 
26 feet. She was built for a blockade runner, and was consid- 
ered a good sea boat. We found her state rooms and berths too 
small for comfort, and the approaches to the dining saloon long, 
narrow, unpleasant and unsavory. But we are disposed to apply 
the bridge rule to steamboats, and to speak well of those Avhicli 
carry us safely. 

Before leaving home wo doated on the Gulf Stream. It was 
our ideal salt water, and bore the same relative position to the 
rest of the ocean world that the Garden of Eden did to all the 
islands and continents outside. When the fifty separate and 
distinct persons on as many different occasions asked us if Ave were 
not afraid to take an ocean voyage in Avinter, and more esiiecially 
when every ncAvspapcr Avas and had for some time been filled 
with accounts of terrific storms, accompanied by Avinds before 
Avhich the strongest ships Avere like so many egg shells, the ready 
reply which then so satisfied us seemed to be equally satisfactory 
to them; " Oh, no; Ave do not fear or dread it at all, for in thirty 
hours from Ncav York we will be in the Gulf Stream, Avliere the 



28 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 

water, flowing in a stream a thousand times larger than the Mis- 
sissippi rivei', from hot equatorial regions, is always warm, and 
the air, loaded with ozone, saline and other health imparting 
ingredients, is as warm and pleasant as that which we breathe 
at our best seaside resorts in summer ; storm-caught and ice- 
coated vessels run into it to thaw out." But alas! all our ideals 
vanish into thin air and disappear forever the moment we at- 
tempt to seize them Avith our hands of flesh. The beautiful 
vision of the Gulf Stream exists for us no more. It will never 
return. We have been there. Wo were from eight to ten hours 
crossing it at an oblique angle. We rolled and tossed "'in and 
over " it to the content of our hearts and the disturbance of our 
stomachs. As it piled up its huge waves higher than our ship, 
one after another of the passengers seemed to have "a call" to 
go somewhere else, and left the deck, first bending over the guard 
rail, with their faces turned mysteriously towards the angry 
waters, with an agonized expression, as though they had caught 
sight of some large sea serpent. One gentleman was asked by 
an innocent sympathizer if he was sick. The quick and forcible 
reply seemed to be perfectly satisfactory, "Do you think I am 
such a d — n fool that I am doing all this for fun?" Having 
personally paid unwilling tribute to Neptune, we turned our back 
upon the foam-crested billows and took refuge in our little sar- 
dine box below, Avhere, with the port hole closed, Ave lay above 
the heaving bosom of this enchanting ocean-river. And noAv, 
ever and anon, upon all sorts of occasions, the Gulf Stream, disen- 
chanted, calls up the same memories and fills us Avith the same 
feelings of thankfulness and gratitude Avhich Sancho Panza 
experienced Avhencver he thought of the blanket in AAdiich he 
Avas ingloriously tossed in the yard of the Spanish inn. The 
steamer in Avhich Ave left New York, had carefully hugged the 
shores of the Atlantic States and kej)t out of it, and we skirted 



IP^ROAC^JS TO i^ASSAtt. S^ 

the east coast of Florida below Jacksonville for some twenty- 
eiglit hours before we turned near Jupiter Light to enter and 
cross it. 

One cannot understand the phrase "A wilderness of waters" 
until he actually sails day after day with nothing in view but 
the deep beloAV and the deep above. On the second day out 
from Jacksonville we first sighted, off our starboard quarter, a 
faint trace of curling smoke in the distance, and soon, after 
crossing our bow, a Havanna steamer exchanged flag salutations 
with the Secret, 

The character and disposition of people are often strikingly 
displayed on shipboard. Some are so kind, so considerate, so 
mindful of their fellow-voyagers, so forgetful of themselves. 
Others seem to believe that the world, and all that it contains 
that is worth having, was made expressly for themselves. They 
seem lineally descended from the man whose only prayer to God 
was that He would 

'* Bless me and my wife, 
]\Iy son Jolm and his wife, 
Us four — and no more !" 

And also to be very nearly related to the individual who owned 
one-half of a negro, and who Avas accustomed to request the di- 
vine blessing for "myself, my wife, and my half of Jake." 

A novel sight presented itself as we approached the ship's 
dock at ISTassau. The perfectly clear and transparent water, ex- 
quisitely and indescribably colored; the old, weather-worn vessels 
at anchor; the forts and sea-walls; the white streets and white 
stone buildings, all of coral limestone, contrasted oddly with the 
crowds of persons, mostly colored, that filled all the docks, 
streets and standing places at and near the landing. We were 



§0' ISLES Of StTMMEB. 

■vvithin several rods of the clock when a dozen nearly naked 
little Africans commenced the sport of diving off the dock into 
the deep water after the coins which the passengers threw over- 
board. They seemed to be amphibious and were all expert 
swimmers. They generally succeeded in securing the much 
coveted prizes before the latter reached the bottom. But little, 
in fact no real annoyance, aside from the delay, was experienced 
from the custom house officials, and we soon found ourselves at 
home in the Koyal Victoria Hotel, one of the finest buildings of 
the kind in the Western world. 



CHAPTER II. 

A Break-water of Islands, Bocks, Beefs and Banks over 2,000 miles long. 
The Bahama Archipelago. The Gulfs, Sounds and Ship Channels that pene- 
trate and suri'oimd the Group. Modern Science discovering Hidden Chapters 
of the Earth's History. Monuments of Buried Lands. Ocean Thorough- 
fares. The Bermudas — their Gradual Subsidence. 

"We sailed the sea, thick sown with clustering isles." — Viegil. 
"These precious stones set in a silver sea." — Shakespeaee. 

Havikg determined to visit the Bahamas, the author com- 
menced immediately to brush away the dust which had during 
a number (please excuse him from not specifying more particu- 
larly how many) of decades of years, covered and obliterated the 
geographical knowledge of his school-boy days. Learning is like 
wealth — not to have it is less discreditable than unfounded pre- 
tensions. His life would have been worth but very little had it 
then depended upon his ability to accurately locate and particu- 
larly describe Nassau and the island of New Providence, or the 
group of which that island forms a part. Is it too much for him 
to assume that his ignorance was not exceptional, and that nearly 
all of his readers can truthfully make a similar confession ? Let 
the favored few who occupy the geographical front seats excuse 
the author, and grant him their kind indulgence, while, for the 
benefit of others, he airs a little his recently resurrected, and, to 
some extent, newly acquired geographical knowledge. 

31 



3^ ISLES OF SUMMER. 

It will be seen upon referring to any good map of the West 
India Islands that an immense number of islands are distributed 
upon a line over two thousand miles long, which trends south- 
easterly from a point relatively near the coast of Florida, to the 
mouth of the Orinoco River in South America. Sprinkled 
among these are many reefs, thousands of rocks, and little islets 
which are called by the English keys and by the Spaniards cays. 
The north-westerly portion of this chain is composed of the 
Bahama archipelago, and embraces thirty-nine islands, six hun- 
dred and sixty-one keys, and two thousand three hundred and 
eighty-seven rocks. 

This Island system constitutes a vast breakwater, and shelters 
from the winds and waves of the wide and stormy Atlantic, the 
Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, which bodies of water are 
perfectly land-locked on their other sides. Were the ocean 
waters drawn off, we should have, in place of this island system, 
the Bahama and Caribbean mountains, a lofty range, elevated 
thousands of feet above the neighboring plains and valleys, 
towering high up in the air as they now do in the water, with 
large areas of high table land. The location of the islands to the 
windward of the banks has favored the formation and growth of 
the latter. 

The Bahama group rises out of several submerged tables of a 
soft calcareous rock, tlie two largest of which are known respec- 
tively as the Great and Little Bahama Banks. The water upon 
these banks attains a maximum depth of several hundred feet. 
The Little Bank is the most northerly, and is only seventy miles 
from the coast of Florida. It embraces a superficial area of 
5,560 square miles, including 1,200 square miles of islands, and 
has a breadth of from thirty-five to sixty miles. Its principal 
islands are Great and Little Abaco and Grand Bahama. The 
two former are sejDarated from each other by a narrow channel. 



tHB BAHAMAS. 33 

and with their numerous keys extend along the eastern edge of 
the Little Bahama Bank for nearly a hundred miles. At the 
southerly extremity of Abaco is the famous ''Hole-in-the-Wall" 
— a large opening through and below the top of a ridge of calca- 
reous rock. Also a light house bearing the same name. A lady 
informed us that several years since, while sailing past Abaco, 
she saw the sun at its setting through this "Hole-in-the-Wall," 
and that the globe of fire, in its setting of rock, left an indelible 
picture of rare and exquisite beauty upon her memory. 

The north-west and north-east Providence Channels separate 
the Little from the Great Bahama Bank. The distance between 
the Banks varies from fifteen to forty-five miles. 

"The north-east Providence Channel separates Abaco from 
the island of Eleuthera and the keys on its northern sliore, which 
lie twenty-seven miles to the south-east of the Hole-in-the-Wall." 

" The whole of the trade from North America and Europe to 
the Gulf of Mexico," says Gov. Eawson, '^passes by the north 
of the Bahama Islands. Steamers bound to the south, stem the 
rapid current of the Florida Channel,"' between the Banks and 
Florida. Sailing vessels pass between Abaco and Eleuthera 
through the Providence Channels, within forty miles of Nassau, 
into the Gulf of Florida. ''All the return-bound trade to the 
north, whether using steam or sails, passes with the [Gulf] stream 
through the Florida Channel." 

''From Eleuthera follow, in the same direction, south-east 
and then south, a succession of long narrow islands, viz. : — St. 
Salvador or Cat Island, Long Island, Ragged Island audits keys. 
* * * Outside the bank, forty-eight miles east of the south 
of St. Salvador, lies Watling Island, * * * and twenty-four 
miles from the north-east end of Long Island lies Eum Key;'" 
between which and the island of St. Salvador, is the small island 
of Conception, 



34 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

South-east of Long Island, beyond the Great Bank, and 
separated from it by a channel twenty-five miles wide, is Crooked 
Island ; then succeeds Acklin's Island, with a yery shallow con- 
necting channel, once reputed fordable in its narrowest part. 
To the north-east of Crooked Island is Sumona, or Atwood Key. 
Plana or French keys are east of Acklin's Island. Then successive- 
ly follow in the same direction (south-east), the Caicos, the Maya- 
guana and the Turks Islands — the last of this inhabited chain 
of islands, six hundred miles in extent, which stretch from a point 
seventy miles from Florida to within a hundred miles of St. 
Domingo. The Caicos and the Turks Islands once were within 
the governmental jurisdiction of the Bahamas, but are now po- 
litically associated with Jamaica. 

Three smaller banks, sei^arated by channels thirty to fifty 
miles wide, and called respectively Mouchoir, Carre, Silver and 
Navidad, extend still further to the south-east, for about one 
hundred and fifty miles. 

Nearly in the latitude of the Turks Islands, and from sixty 
to seventy miles south of Acklin's Island and Mayaguana, are 
Great and Little Inagua or Heneagua, detached, and some sixty- 
five miles north of the north-western extremity of St. Domingo. 
Great Inagua is one of the largest and best of the Bahamas. 
Exuma, with its extensive chain of keys, lies upon the eastern 
edge of the Great Bank, and upon the western side of Exuma 
Sound. This Sound has an average width of forty miles, ex- 
tends north-Avesterly about one liundred miles, and breaks the 
continuity of the Great Bank between St. Salvador and Long 
Island. 

A very deep sound called The Tongue-of-the-Ocean is pro- 
jected into the Great Bank a distance of one hundred and ten 
miles. Major General Nelson, E. E., describes it as having the 
deep blue color of oceanic depths, while 'Hhe color of the water 



*Hfi Bahamas. 83 

firound tlie islands is usually that of the aqua-marine of beryl," 
On its Avestern edge, and skirting the Great Bank lies Andros 
island, much the largest of the group, being ninety-five miles 
long and having a maximum Avidtli of thirty-eight miles. 

The Berry islands are north-east of Andros ; they are arranged 
in the form of a crescent. The horns point to tlie east, and are 
separated by a distance of some forty miles. The south-west 
shore of Abaco, on the opposite side of the nortli-west Providence 
Channel, is only thirty miles distant from these little islands. 

The Biminis are two small islands rendered famous from tlio 
fact that the Fountain of Youth was reported, in tlie time of 
Ponce de Leon, to be located upon one of them. They are 
twenty-five miles south of the north-western portion of the 
Great Bahama Bank, and are described as ''small, pretty and 
fertile." 

The Santareen and Old Bahama Channels are south of the 
Great Bahama Bank. West of the former is situated the Cay 
Sal Bank, embracing fourteen hundred and thirty square miles, 
including some uninhabited Keys; while south of the latter 
channel is the island of Cuba. 

Gov. Rawson states that '"'all the trade from North America 
to Cuba, St. Domingo, Jamaica, the Gulf of Honduras, and the 
northern coast of South America passes south to the windward 
[?'. e. east] of the group, and close to the shores of Inagua, 
I'he return trade, and all the European trade from the same 
cour; tries passes north, either through the Crooked Island pas- 
sages, or the Inagua or Caicos Channels. These islands there- 
fore lie in the track of two great streams of trade, and, at timesj 
scores of vessels pass daily by the 'Hole-in-the-Wall,' and the 
south western point of Inagua." 

ISTew Providence, upon which Nassau is situated, is upon the 
northern edge of the Great Bahama Bank, fifty miles south-west 



§^ 



IStES Oli' STtMMTlft. 



of the north-east exti'eraity of the bank, at the eastern entrance 
of "The Tonguc-of-the-Ocean," and is approached through 
either the north-west or north-east Providence Channels, the 
former of which connects it with the Florida Gulf and is trav- 
ersed by the steamers which bring Nassau's winter visitors from 
the states. 

The following table is copied from Gov. Eawson's report : 



9. 
10. 
11. 
12. 
13. 
14. 
15. 
IG. 

17. 
18. 

19. 



Andros, 

Abaco, Great, 

" Little, 

Inagua, Great, 

" Little, 

Grand Bahama, 

Crooked Island, 

Acklin's Island, 

Fortune Island, (Long Cay) 

Eleutliera, 

Spanish Wells, 

St. Salvador, 

Long Islan d, 

Exuma, Great and Little,.. 

Mayagnana 

New Providence, 

Walling's Island, 

Rum Cay, 

Biminis, North, 

" South, 

Ragged Island and Cay 

Berry Island, Great, 

Harbour Cay, 

Harbour Island, 

Total, 



Square Miles. 



680) 
90)' 

530 ( 
30)' 

70) 
120 - 

8) 



3 ) 

5:i)" 



1,000 
776 

500 
430 

204 

104 

100' 

130 

110 

V,Q 

85 
00 
29 

SJ- 



Ih 



Extreme 
Lenstli. 



Miles. 



95 
70 
24 
34 
8 
66 
19 
41 
10 



42 

60 
32 
23 

19;^ 

13 

9i 

3.V 

5:V 







Extreme 
Breadth. 



3S 
17 

5 
25 

7 
11 

8 
10 

U 
11 

14 

3-1 

7 

6 

6 
5 

U 

1| 
oa 

u 



Averase 
Breadth. 



Miles. 



12 

4 

16 

7 
5 
4 



1 



4,424 



The foregoing table shows proximately the length, breadth 



fetJRIED LAKDS. St 

and size of tlie principal Bahama islands, exclusive of the keys 
Avhich cluster around thenio 

This extensive and singular group of islands, so unlike the 
l^ew England that the author had left behind him, charmed by 
its novelty, and elicited enthusiastic admiration. 

' ' He found in all that met his eyes, 
The freshness of a glad surprise." 

They repose in the lap of unending summer. Daring enter- 
prise, resistless courage, and the intense activities of busy human 
life, do not cross the great ocean river. No blighting and kill- 
ing frosts are ever found between its eastern margin and the 
rising sun. To all that we have been accustomed, or ever ex- 
perienced before, it had been practically the stream of oblivion — 
the river of death. The ancient seers who saw and pictured 
heaven dwelt in warm sunny climes. ISTone of the streets of the 
New Jerusalem which they saw with spiritual vision, were paved 
with ice or blockaded with snow. We here found the sea so 
smooth, the wind so mild, the air so agreeably warm, the sky 
so serene, the clouds so soft and delicately tinted, and our mind 
and heart were pervaded by such a spirit of resignation, content- 
ment and peace — of love to God and good Avill towards man — 
while the past appeared so unreal and dreamy, — we at times were 
almost ready to believe that our "mortal had put on immor- 
tality." But the regular periodic return of hunger, and an 
appetite that gave a keen relish to the gross food of earth, soon 
convinced us that we still inhabited our old bodies, and fly-like, 
adhered to the surface of one of the sun's revolving satelites. 

In this new world our curiosity was awakened and greatly 
stimulated. What part, we inquired, have these immense banks, 
with their clustered isles played in the world's history ? In 
"what manner were they made ? How many thousands of years 



S8 ISLES OF SXJMMM. 

were involved in tlieir construction? What great cosmic and 
geological truths is this murmuring ocean endeavoring to reveal? 

In groping after truth, man passes over the bridge of the 
known to the dark and shadowy regions of the unknown. Up- 
ward he treads the rounds of a ladder bottomed upon earth but 
lost in impenetrable clouds. Yet, when considered in connec- 
tion with human insignificance, there is much which man has 
been enabled to learn, and in no department of human knowl- 
edge has greater progress been made than in that of geology, — ■ 
a science that underlies, and, to some extent, explains the facts 
of physical geography. 

"The Egyptian priests told Herodotus that from the time of 
their first king, which was eleven thousand and odd years, the 
sun had four times altered his course; that the sea and the earth 
did alternately change into one another."'* New evidences of 
some of these changes, clear and indisputable, have been found 
in our own time and country. Upon the American continent, 
man Avalks and Avorks, and muses upon mountains and plains 
once a portion of the ocean's bed. Vast quantities of the skele- 
tons of "monsters of the deep," and marine fauna, of families 
and genera and species supposed to be now extinct, are entombed 
in the jirofound depths of its rocks. Upon the low, long and 
narrow islands and keys composing the Bahama Archipelago, in 
the soft, languid and voluptuous air, we pensively muse above a 
continent that nature, in one of her sublime convulsions, or by a 
slow but no less grand process, requiring cycles of time of vast and 
inconceivable extent for its completion, has buried from human 
sight in the unfathomable depths of a wild waste of waters. 
There is something grand and appalling in the chapters of the 
earth's autobiography as disclosed by its continents and ocean 
isles. Like the astronomer who discerns and translates for us 

*JVIontaiffue. 



BURIED LAN""DS. ^9 

^'tlie tliouglits of God in the sky," so the geologist who reads to 
us from the book of the rocks, seems, like Moses iipon Sinai, to 
commune with Jehovah and to have his lips hallowed with a 
divine inspiration. 

To man's inquiring thought, the ocean responds only in dirge- 
like harmonies. In its mystic and profound depths, during the 
long and silent ages, the sea has kept its secrets well. But in 
our own time — thanks to a Darwin, a Dana, a Marsh, and an 
Agassiz — the key of the known has unlocked many of the mys- 
teries of the unknown, and in these rocky isles we now behold 
the head-stones of lands that the sea engulfed ! 

Prof. Dana, in his work upon Corals and Coral Islands, after 
alluding to 'Hhe northern continental upward movements which 
introduced the glacial era," and stating that ''while the earth's 
crust was arching upward" at the north, "it may have been 
bending downward over the vast central area of the great ocean," 
adds : 

"The changes which took place, contemporaneously, in the 
Atlantic tropics, are very imperfectly recorded. The Bahamas 
show by their form and j^osition that they cover a submerged 
land of large area, stretching over six hundred miles from nortli- 
west to south-east. The long line of reefs, and the Florida 
keys, trending far away from Southern Florida, are evidence 
that this Florida region participated in the downward movement, 
though to a less extent than the Bahamas. Again, the islands 
of the West Indies diminish in size to the eastward, being quite 
small in the long line that looks out upon the broad ocean, just 
as if the subsidence increased in that direction. Finally, the 
Atlantic beyond is water only, as if it had been made a blank by 
the sinking of the lands." 

******* 

" The peninsula of Florida, Cuba and the Bahamas, look, as 



46 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

they lie togefclier, as if all were once part of a greater Florida or 
south-eastern prolongation of the continent. The north-western 
and south-western trends, characterizing the great features of 
the American continent, run through the whole like a warp and 
woof structure, binding them together in one system. " 

To the author of this book it seems probable, from a simple 
examination of a good West India map, that the subsidence ex- 
tended in the same general direction to South America, a dis- 
tance of some fifteen hundred miles further. While the crust 
of the earth was being elevated, depressed and rolled "like a 
scroll," it Avould have been a slight matter to have enlarged the 
area of disturbance to the extent supposed. 

In the shallow water, upon the mountain, tops, tlie corals 
planted their colonies, and these islands, and banks, these coral 
rocks and coral sands, entirely destitute as they are of primitive 
or volcanic rocks, and of fossil remains, are their monuments. 
Geologically speaking the Bahamas arc of a very recent age. 
This is indicated by the fact that their hammocks and Avoods are 
almost destitute of soil, yet the growth of coral islands is exceed- 
ingly slow. The coral groves and bowers are individually of 
small extent, very unlike the "illimitable forests" of the floral 
world, and the limestone annually secreted seems in quantity re- 
latively insignificant. The vast areas of coral limestones and of 
coral sands, are composed only of the detritus, torn, grounded 
and scattered by an ocean never at rest, and often exhibiting an 
energy and power almost divine, and of fragments of marine 
shells broken, pounded and rounded in the same way. Shells 
of existing species are found in the rocks, and Charles Burnsidc, 
Esq., son of a late Surveyor-general of the Bahamas, informed 
us that in a Nassau quarry upon liis grounds wliicli we visited, a 
large and perfect egg was taken from the rock at a distance of 
sixteen feet below the rock's surface. It is clear that ocean has 



fetTRlED LlKIDg. 41 

been and is one of tlie grinding mills of the gods, and tliat dura- 
tion or extent of time is only a conception of man. It is said to 
require under favorable circumstances a thousand years to make 
five perpendicular feet of coral limestone, and that coral rock 
exists in the Pacific ocean two thousand feet thick. In contrast 
with such almost infinite durations, well may the Chiuese phil- 
osophers and sages compare the life of man with the little insig- 
nificant span of the measuring Avorm. 

The important part taken by the Bahama shell fish in the 
formation of the banks and rocks of the Bahamas is indicated 
by their very great abundance. Major-General Nelson states 
that *^at Six Hills (Caicos Group) the mass of Conch Shells 
{Stromhus gigas) is so great and sufficiently cemented together 
as to form not only a rock, but an island several hundred feet in 
length." 

While the highest land in the Bahamas is 230 feet above the 
sea, generally the hills on the larger islands are much under 100 
feet in height, and from 10 to 50 feet on the islets. They abound 
with ''pit holes" and ''rock marshes." The Avater upon the 
lower flats is brackish and rises and falls, though not contem- 
poraneously with the tide, or at a uniform rate. There are many 
ordinary and mangrove swamps, small and shallow, more or less 
connected with the sea. So far as there is any soil it is found in 
the little pockets in the rocks, and is scant and fertile. There 
are also large areas of " pine barrens " where the pine and the 
palm flourish side by side — the north and the south to tliis 
extent meeting and mingling harmoniously in the floral world. 
Lakes of salt or brackish water mirror the heavens and add a 
new charm to the landscape upon many of the islands. Andrus 
alone boasts a fresh water lake and a few small out-flowing fresh 
water streams. The rocks are all calcareous, soft and easily 
worked below the surface, white and dazzling when first quar- 



4S ISLlEi^ OF gUMMEK. 

ried, but they acquire a flinty hardness of surface, and assume 
a subdued and darker shade (an ashen gray) when exposed to 
the sun and air. 

The Bermuda Islands are closely allied to the Bahamas, having 
the same formation and being surrounded by coral reefs. They 
are situated in the same latitude with Charleston, S. C, and are 
seven hundred and eighty miles distant from Cape Hatteras, and 
seven hundred miles south-east of New York. Science has dis- 
covered, and historical records have furnished most reliable evi- 
dence, that this group of coral islands, since their first discovery 
in the early part of the sixteenth century, have been in a state 
of subsidence, so that they arc now far less extensive than they 
were between three hundred and four hundred years ago. Prof. 
Dana says : " Twenty miles to the south-west by west from the 
Bermudas there are two submerged banks, twenty to forty-seven 
fathoms under water, showing that the Bermudas are not com- 
pletely alone, and demonstrating that they cover a summit in a 
range of heights ; and it may have been a long range." 



CHAPTER in. 

Neio Providence. Killarney and Cunninglmm Lakes. Caves and Cave 
Earth. The Mermaid's Pool. Nassau — its Streets, Public and Private Build- 
ings, and Population. The Poor and Happy Negroes. Fai't Fincastle and 
its Signals. Grant's Town and other Suburban Villages. Fort Charlotte — 
its Subterranean Rooms and Charming Out-loolc. Lunching at the Expense 
of the British Queen. Removal of the Old Bai'racks. Fort Montague. A 
Luxuriant Growth of Titles. Nassau Harbor and its Bar. Observing the 
Breakers. Shells and Shell-work. Nassau's Public Library. 

" This sceptered isle ; 
This earth of majesty ; this seat of Mars ; 
Tliis other Eden — demi-paradise. " — Shakespeare. 

" The poor contents him with the care of heaven." — Pope. 

The island of New Providence, although small in size and 
greatly deficient in soil, far transcends in importance all the is- 
lands with which it is more immediately associated. Nassau, 
the Bahama capital, reposes in calm, quiet dignity upon the 
northern slope of the hill that rises to a height of ninety feet 
above its northern shore, bathes its feet in the sheltered sea, and 
lifts its municipal head above the heights that overlook Grant's 
Town. It is to the entire archipelago what Athens was to Greece 
and the rising sun to the old Persian fire-worshippers. '' Paris 
is France ;" — Nassau is New Providence and the Bahamas. But 
for its harbor and favorable location, it never would have risen 
from the rocks, or reposed under the shadows of its tropical and 
semi-tropical trees. Its superiority as a shelter for ships, caused 
43 



44 ISLES OP StfMMES. 

it to become for these islands tlie seat and focus of civil, political, 
ecclesiastical, and military power. Without its geographical and 
to|)ographical advantages, it is not probable that within its nar- 
row borders a Colonial Governor would ever have had his resi- 
dence, an Episcopal Bishop his seat, or two companies of her 
majesty's colored troops their barracks. ]Slo old and rusty guns 
would have given to the crests ol its hills a military and warlike 
aspect; jurisprudence would have soug'it elsewhere room for iier 
highest courts, and no colonial representatives or lords would 
have occupied imported hia-li-backed chairs in its legislative 
halls. 

New Providence has an extreme length of about nineteen and 
three-eights miles from east to west; an extreme Avidth of about 
seven miles from north to south; an average width of about five 
miles; and embraces a total area of about eighty-five square 
miles. From the north shore in front of Nassau, the distance 
across the island is between five and six miles. With the excep- 
tion of a very few square miles occuj)ied by Nassau and its sub- 
urbs, there is little upon the island except water and wilderness; 
the former brackish, and throbbing and in some places appear- 
ing and disappearing with the long pulsations of the sea's diurnal 
tides, and the latter, to a large extent, a dense low jungle, with 
stretches of pitch pine forests rising from a thick undergrowth 
of scrub palmettoes, all being root-fastened to the rocks and ap- 
parently living like Dr. Tanner during his recent forty days' fast, 
exclusively upon air and water. 

The Avestern extremity of New Providence is called Clifton 
Point, and its eastern extremity. East Point. In a south-west- 
erly direction from Nassau, at a distance of probably seven or 
eight miles. Lake Killarney is situated — a body of shallow, brack- 
ish water nearly three miles in length from east to west, and 
about two and three-fifth miles in width from north to south. 



LAKES AISTD CAVES. 45 ' 

The Blue Hill range is about seven miles long, and running east 
and Avest, separates this lake from Lake Cunningham — a smaller 
body of shallow Avater, half a mile wide, and two and two-thirds 
miles in length from east to west. The negro drivers, by design 
or ignorance, palm off this lake upon strangers for Killarney-^it 
being nearer and more accessible than the latter. Cunningham, 
Avith its little mangrove islands, is well worth visiting, and the 
drive for a mile or two through the pine woods and scrub pal- 
mettoes, rendered necessary to reacli it, gives one an opportunity 
to see something of the low, wet, rough, and rocky make up of 
portions of the island. Wild flowers and palmetto leaves, gath- 
ered by the Avayside, often give a gay and festive appearance to 
the vehicles of the excursionists upon their return near the 
close of day or in the edge of the evening. The Blue Hills 
attain an elevation of 120 feet. 

Caves exist in the western extremity of the hill that separates 
the tAvo lakes, and there is always connected Avith caverns in the 
rocks enough of the Aveird and Avild and mysterious to make them 
objects of interest. We found it so Avith these. Indeed their 
proximity to a sea so recently infested by pirates, and their loca- 
tion upon an island not very long ago in possession of a now 
vanished race of men, suggest many a question which only the 
dead can ansAver. As Ave folloAved our dusky guide and passed 
from one chamber to another over the rocks, disturbing and 
driving from their dark retreats the bats, it was not difficult to 
imagine that the ghosts of the cruel and reckless buccaneers, and 
the shades of the unfortunate and grossly wronged Indians, 
were peering at us in the darkness and gloom. But after 
building a fire in the deepest, darkest and most dismal chamber 
of them all, Avhich Avas entered through a small opening in a 
partition of rock, Ave experienced a feeling of relief, knowing that 
the elfs of evil vanish with the liolit. 



46 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 

In quite a number of instances the ceilings of the rocky cham- 
bers had j)artially fallen in, and, through the openings, the roots 
of wild fig trees had made their way, dropped from ten to twenty 
feet to the bottom, where, entwined among and running over the 
rocks, they seemed in the dim light like huge anacondas, Avhose 
repose it might be dangerous to disturb. 

Catesby, a century ago, in writing in regard to the natural 
history of the Bahamas, observed, that " many of these islands, 
particularly Providence, abound with deep caverns containing 
salt water at their bottoms. These pits, being perjjendicular 
from their surface, are frequently so choked up and obscured by 
the falling of trees and rubbish, that great caution is required 
to prevent falling into these ' unfathomable j)its ' as the inhabit- 
ants call them, and it is thought that many men who never 
returned from hunting have perished in them." 

We called the attention of an intelligent native and old resi- 
dent of Nassau to this passage and he assented to its truth. To 
this day, the island, though so small, is largely an unknown 
country to its people. This seems incredible, but it is none the 
less true. Stimulated by a crisp and frosty air, northern jDeople 
fit out exploring expeditions to the North Pole and the interior 
of Africa; but the citizens of Nassau care not to explore the 
dense jangles that exist a short distance from their doors. 

An article appeared in the Nassau Gazette a year or two since 
in Avhich a correspondent describes a natural reservoir of fresh 
water called "The Mermaid's Pool," or "The Black Water 
Pool," which seems to resemble the deep caverns or pits to which 
Catesby refers, except that it is filled with fresh water. This 
Avriter states that it is located in the south j)art of the island of 
New Providence, about a mile from the shore, near an extensive 
cocoanut plantation, then belonging to the Hon. J. S. George, 
a gentleman who is since, we believe, deceased. " It is in a rocky. 



THE mermaid's POOL. N"ASSA1T. 47 

wooded plain^ so jjerfectly level that it would be difficult for a 
rabbit to find a liillock sufficiently high for concealment." It is 
about one hundred and fifty feet in diameter, sixty-five feet in 
depth, and without banks. Tlie water comes " to the very brim," 
and it has ''a depth of forty feet at the very edge, which is the 
more remarkable as the adjacent sea is so shallow that it would 
be necessary to go five miles from the shore or six miles from the 
pool, before a depth equal to that of the pool is reached." Al- 
though a great natural curiosity, and but a few miles from the 
city, the writer says " it is almost unknown to the people of 
Nassau." He gives the substance of a wild, romantic legend 
concerning this ''Mermaid's Pool," in which a dusky island 
princess and a foreign shipwrecked prince act prominent parts. 
Strange noises are heard there at night, and in the form of a 
mermaid the princess at times emerges from the dark pool in the 
dim moonlight, seizes any unfortunate damsel who happens to be 
in the vicinity, and carries her a prisoner to her watery home in 
the rock. 

The Bahamas yield a " cave earth " composed of phosphates 
of lime and some ammonia. It is a kind of guano, and has suf- 
ficient value as a fertilizer to cause it to be exported to other 
countries, principally to the United States. The total value of 
this guano exported has often been about $20,000 a year, at 
about fifteen dollars a ton. It is not used in the colony. 

Nassau is situated in latitude 25° 51' north, and longitude 77° 
21' west. The rock upon Avhicli it is situated has furnished the 
materials for the outer- walls of all its public and many of its 
private buildings. Nature seems to have had regard to the fact 
that the people who were to live in this enervating air would 
never voluntarily quarry granite or any similar stone, and there- 
fore she has provided them with a rock that is soft beloAV the 
surface and easily worked, but hardens when exposed to the air. 



48 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

Many gardens, orchards, and ornamental grounds are enclosed 
with high walls made of this rock. These walls are stuccoed, 
and covered on toj) with fragments of glass embedded in mortar, 
all which impresses one with the conviction that petty larceny is 
an offence not unknown upon this liappy and innocent-looking 
isle. 

Very many of the houses have large, heavy blinds on the sides 
exposed to the street and the sun, Avhich enclose spacious piazzas, 
and thus secure cool air and seclusion. The blinds, in connec- 
tion with the garden Avails, give them, to northern eyes, some- 
thing of the appearance of Turkish harems, and the impression 
is deepened by the additional fact that one seldom gets even a 
glance at the beautiful ladies who are supposed to occupy these 
pleasant homes. 

We are unable to give accurately the population of Nassau. 
In 1861, the population of the Bahamas was 35,287, of which 
number 11,503 were upon the island of New Providence, and, 
according to Gtoa'. Rawsou, "of these, upwards of 10,000 lived in 
Nassau and its snluirbs;" and as Grant's toAvn and Bain's town, 
two of the suburbs, then contained a population, the first of 
2,398 and the second of 1,315, it left only 6,287 for Nassau. The 
population of the Bahamas in 1871, accordiug to Moseley's Al- 
manac, was 39,162, an increase of a little less than 4,000. If 
we alloAV Nassau and its .suburbs their proportionate share of this 
increase (one-third) and add an equal number for the increase 
since 1871, it will mal^ethe present population of Nassau and its 
suburbs between 12,600 and 12,700. There is, however, nothing 
to indicate that there has been much additiou to the white pop- 
ulation of Nassau. 

Bay street monopolizes nearly ali: the business of the city, and 
is its principal thoroughfare. It skirts the harbor, is shaded by 
rows of almond trees, stretches east and west for several miles 




Lookiog down George st. from the Government House. Statue of Columbus 

in the foreground. The Cathedral on the right. The Vendue House 

at the foot of the street. The Harbor, Barrier Island, 

and Ocean north of the city. 



NASSAU. 49 

beyond the limits of the city, and is made lively and attractive 
by trade and travel. The docks and landings, the public market, 
the stone barracks with their iron framed and stone-paved ver- 
andas, Fleming Square and the officers' quarters, the airy unin- 
closed Vendue House, numerous stores and dwellings, a few small 
hotels and private boarding houses, the eastern Parade Ground, 
and an old cemetery still further to the east — all give tone, char- 
acter and importance to the street, and confer upon it a very 
great pre-eminence over all the other streets of the city. 

For several miles, during all parts of the day. Bay street is 
thronged with people, almost exclusively colored. Many of them 
are women and children, merchants in a very small way, bearing 
their stock in trade upon their heads. Idlers abound. No one 
is in any hurry. "How are you to-day, massa ?" — "God bless 
you, massa" — "Can't you give me a penny, boss?" are among 
the common salutations. The elderly colored women, when in- 
formed that we feel pretty well to-day, with much gravity of 
look and a devout expression, ejaculate " Thank God!" and pass 
along. The diminutive black vocalists remember our interest in 
their sacred songs, and have another song which they are anxious 
to sing to us. 

Nothing so impressed us with the evident poverty of the colored 
people of Nassau as a class, and of the difficulty they experience 
in getting a good and honest living, as the large number of colored 
women and children to be constantly seen during every business 
day upon Bay street bearing in their hands, or, (when walking,) 
upon their heads, their little stocks in trade — here a few pennies 
worth of candy, and there a little trifle of cake; some with small 
quantities of peanuts, and others having small supplies of flowers 
or fruit — the appearance of the latter often suggesting the 
thought that it had been prematurely picked to meet wants that 
were pressing, and would not wait. A capital of twenty-five 



50 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

cents appeared amply sufficient to enaljle most of these street 
or curb-stone merchants to have a good start in life. The good 
nature and generosity of the colored people as a class was 
very marked. They freely gave to each other from their lit- 
tle stores, and never seemed to either fret, fume, worry or 
hurry. Truly blessed are these destitute children of the sun, 
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven — -if heaven is the state or 
condition of being contented and happy — or if it is a country 
where nothing that makes a man rich in this ever enters. It is 
worth a journey to Nassau to learn the extent of man's artificial 
wants. 

The streets of Nassau are to a large extent made in and upon 
the surface rock, the paving having been previously done when the 
shell and coral sands were hardened into stone. By filling up 
the hollows with broken stone, the roads are easily kept in good 
repair, as the rains soon dissolve the lime in the rock sufficiently 
to form a cement which makes all compact and solid. Prisoners 
in small squads, ornamented and secured by chain and ball, are 
daily seen working upon the roads — sitting sometimes, while 
working with their hammers, nnshielded from the hot sun, in 
the dazzling light reflected from the white surface, while the 
thermometer registers from 140° to 150°. 

Sherley street runs next south of and jiarallel with Bay street, 
and is the second street in extent and importance. East Hill 
street runs for a short distance back (south) of the Royal Vic- 
toria Hotel. A few cross streets extend southerly from Bay 
street — most of them but a short distance. The principal 
of these arc : 1st, Market street, leading to Grant's Town, the 
north terminus of which is at the City Market; 2d, George street, 
Avhich, commencing at the Vendue House, passes in front of the 
"Cathedral" or Christ's Church, and extends to the foot of a 
long flight of steps leading to the Govcrumeut House or residence 







Fort Fincastle. 



FOKT PIirCASTLE — ITS SIGISTALS. 51 

of the Governor of the colony; od, Frederick street, upon which 
is the Wesleyan Trinity Church, and St. Andrew's Presbyterian 
Church; 4tli, Parliament street, on the east side of which, at its 
northerly terminus, are the legislative and judicial buildings, 
while the Victoria Hotel is on the same side at its southerly ter- 
minus; 5th, East street, which, iiassing the hotel, leads to Fort 
Fincastle, on the crest of the hill. 

This fort commands a good view of the ocean and is utilized 
as a signal station. Whenever any vessel approaches either en- 
trance to the harbor of Nassau, the direction from Avhich it 
comes and its character are indicated by flags hoisted upon its 
flag staff. It is a queer looking affair, running at one end to a 
point, and looking like some old sharp-bowed ante-diluvian 
water craft, ossified and turned into stone, which from the bot- 
tom of the sea had been pushed ujd into the air and the sun-light 
when the rock upon which it rests was elevated. Little negro 
cabins cluster around and cling to its side like so many large 
barnacles. 

SIGNALS UPOJSr FOET FINCASTLE. 

Flags at mast-head denote the description of approaching ves- 
sels. 

Small quarter flags at W\(i point of the yard arm indicate the 
number of aii]n-oacliing vessels. Four halyards attached to the 
yard arm are thus used; — one on the first halyard signifies one 
vessel; on the second, two vessels/ and so on. 

If more than eight vessels arc approaching from one quarter, 
i\\Q fleet flag is hoisted at the mast-head, and the quarter flags at 
the point of the yard arm. 

A Mail Packet Steamer is indicated by a Red Pendant at the 
yard arm, over the quarter flag. 

When the mail steamer anchors, a Union Jack is hoisted on 



52 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

the Public Abutmentj when the mails are landed it is hauled 
down. 

A Red Pendant is hoisted at the mast-head of the fort when 
a vessel of war aj)proaches; and should the Union be flying from 
t'he fort, the Eed Pendant is hoisted under it. 

A Large Union is hoisted on Sundays, all public days, and 
whenever the royal standard is unfurled at Government House. 
It is kept flying, excej^t in bad weather, from eight o'clock a. m. 
until sunset. 

A Small Union hoisted at mast-head over the signal Avhich de- 
notes the description of the vessel approaching, indicates that 
the Governor is on board, and is kept flying until the vessel an- 
chors. His excellency is evidently the Queen Bee of the little 
hive. 

MAST-HEAD SIGNALS. 

Red and yelloio (vertical bars), steamer. 
Red and lohite cross, brig. 
Red^ ship or barque. 
White until red cross, brigantine. 
Blue loith white cross, fore and aft schooner. 
Blue, top-sail schooner. 
Blue and yellow (horizontal), fleet. 
White and blue (horizontal), distress. 

YARD ARM SIGXALS — (QUARTER FLAGS.) 

Yelloui, west. 

Blue and yelloio (vertical), north-west. 
Blue, north. 

Blue and red, north-east. 
Red, east. 

Very near to its north wall a deep cut has been made in the 



/ 



SUBURBAN" VILLAGES. 53 

rock through the hill, as if for the purpose of obstructing by 
an artificial chasm the approach to the fort by a hostile land 
force from the north. In this deep gorge there is a long high 
flight of stone steps, which are dignified by the name of ''The 
Queen's Staircase." It is an interesting spot and much visited. 

Back of Nassau, over the hill, towards the west is Delancy's 
Town — a suburb of the city occupied by colored people ; G-rant's 
Town and Baine's Town lie also back of the city below and beyond 
the crest of the hill, but are further to the east. 

These suburban villages are inhabited largely by manumitted 
slaves and the descendants of those who have been enfranchised. 
Some, it is said, still use their native African dialects, and har- 
bor some of their old superstitions. We frequently visited these 
suburbs, and were always much interested in their teeming popu- 
lation, huddled together around their humble dwellings, sit- 
ting upon the rocks, or leaning upon the rude division and front 
walls of their village lots. With no corroding cares, no trouble- 
some anxieties about to-morrow, and no wants not easily supplied, 
they seemed more to be envied than many of the tired toilers in 
colder climes. Excepting the divers, we saw none of the 
''nearly naked negroes " that others have described. Once while 
sailing before a good breeze, a boat passed tlnit was sculled by a 
small boy, whose costume consisted only of a shirt, or, as a lady 
very forcibly expressed it, " two sheets in the wind, or one flying. " 
His diminutive size, ebony complexion and comical attitude, 
self-satisfied air and " ascension robe," contrasted strikingly with 
the size of his boat, the dignity and gravity of his passengers, 
the clear and exquisitely beautiful water, and the green back- 
ground of Hog Island, whose southern shore he was approaching. 
But little money is, however, spent for dry goods, and many are 
barefooted, Avhile the poor apologies for shoes which others have, 
make it impossible for them to walk except with a noisy, shuffling 



54- ISLTIS OF StJMMER. 

gait, which equally grates upon the ear and offends the eye of 
people from the States. Those whom we have seen Sundays 
have been well and neatly but not expensively dressed. 

The streets of these suburbs are narrow and cross each other 
at right angles. Building lots have been laid out upon them, 
upon which there is usually a small one-story house, and some- 
times two or more, embowered in orange, tamarind, cocoanut, 
banana, sapodilla and other trees, and with flowering shrubs 
and vines. Here, as elsewhere generally upon the island, so far 
as we have seen it, the trees rise up out of the bare and naked 
rocks. . Grov. Eawson in his report for 1864, sjaeaking of this 
locality, says: "Fruit trees of various kinds are crowded around 
the dwellings and cottages, growing luxuriantly, but planted 
without order, unselected, impruned, and unimproved, often 
finding a place and nourishment for their roots in crannies and 
fissures in the rocks into which it would appear imjjossiblo for 
them to penetrate." 

One can hardly believe his own eyes in looking at them. The 
plow and the sjDade, the harrow and the cultivator, the scythe 
and the reaper would be as much out of place here as snowballs 
in a baker's oven. The only implements of husbandry that can 
be made available are the pick and the crowbar. By prying up 
the end of a stone, or finding a crevice or n'^aking one in the rock, 
a place is found for slip, root, or seed, and when thus utilized, 
small rootlets start out, follow all the minute inequalities of the 
porous limestone, penetrate all the little jjockets in the rock, run 
over and down ledges ten to twenty feet higli, searching for fis- 
sures and crevices in the hard bottom of stone below, as if guided 
by intelligence, and impelled onward by a strong and most tena- 
cious love of life, while, at the same time, buds and twigs and 
stems and branches push upwards, enlarge and miiltiply, draw- 
ing rich supplies of food from a hot sun that warms but never 



, graft's towk. 55 

wilts, and from the cIgavs and showers that come down from 
heaven for their sustenance, until a dense and seemingly impen- 
etrable forest, fast anchored to the rocks, and a wild tangle of 
vines and bushes, blushing v/itli flowers that perfume the air, 
cover all the apparent sterility of nature with a beauty which 
seems like childhood's dreams of fairy land. 

The houses of the negroes arc built mostly of wood, but some 
have limestone walls, while the roofs are covered — some with 
shingles and others with a thatching of palmetto leaves. It is 
rare to see a house with glass windows — board shutters take the 
place of sashes, and fire-places and chimneys are unknown. A 
little fire out doors, for cooking, made of dead Avood gathered in 
the forest or thickets, which is transported in little bundles upon 
the heads of Avomen and children, is all that is required in this 
warm climate. The Avails are not sheathed or plastered, and the 
furniture of the houses is of the rudest and most simple kind. 
The colored people in the day time live out of doors in the open 
air, so that in riding through these suburbs, the whole popula- 
tion comes under revieAv. Nobody appears to be at work. In 
sunshine or shadow, having nothing and Avanting nothing, taking- 
no thought for to-morroAV, they live on like the birds from day to 
day, not needing to take lessons of the ant nor of any other of 
the Avorld's greedy and grasping toilers. All are merry, light- 
hearted and joyous; nobody frets or scolds; not a child cries; and 
the dogs, crouching beside their indolent masters, are literally 
too lazy to bark. All the thieving is of the petty kind — it Avould 
be too much like Avork to plan and execute robbery on a large 
scale — and what is the use of committing burglaries and grand 
larcenies Avhen a little sugar-cane or a handful of fruit fills to 
overflowing the measure of their wants! There are no trades- 
unions, no commercial revulsions, and no strikes for higher 
wages. No heads ache from the pressing weight of the croAvns 



56 ISiiES OF SUMMER. 

they wear, and no brains give out in the ceaseless and crazy 
struggles for wealth and power. Voluptuous idleness is the 
happy offspring of these charming isles of the sea, where frosts 
are unknown, and health and happiness float on each passing 
wave of the soft, perfumed air. 

Some of the military officials having very kindly designated a 
time when they would show the interior of Fort Charlotte, in- 
cluding its extensive subterranean works, to some of the hotel 
guests, we were enabled through the politeness of Edward N. 
Shelton, Esq., of Derby, Ct., to partici23ate in the pleasure of 
the excursion. 

This fort, in its completed form, is not a hundred years old, 
and yet neither history or tradition are able to inform us positively 
when or Dy whom its foundations were laid, Mr. Charles Mosel}'', 
an old resident of Nassau, long an editor and publisher of one 
of its newspapers, says in his almanac: "It is supposed to have 
been begun by the Spaniards. It was finished about 1790, but 
the information regarding its history is very meagre and incom- 
plete." Thus the same air that stimulates into rapid and vigor- 
ous growth the vegetable world, operates as an opiate upon ani- 
mal life, puts the Genius of History to sleep, and makes the 
Present too indolent to prepare and preserve records of the most 
important passing events. 

Fort Charlotte is upon the summit of the hill upon which 
Nassau, in a state of semi-tropical torpor, reposes. It is west of 
the city, and commands the principal or west entrance to the 
harbor. We passed a small open shore battery, and, ascending 
the hill by a winding roadway, soon reached and crossed a draw- 
bridge over a dry moat, ascended a flight of steps cut in the rock 
within the fort's walls, to the high rocky table within the ram- 
parts, where we found our military escort waiting to receive and 
welcome us. We felt no desire to enter the fort as prisoners of 



POET CHARLOTTE. 57 

war, and no ambition to take possession of it for and in the name 
of the Great Eepublic, althongh, if somewhat reduced in size, 
and safely floated over the ocean, it might add a pleasing interest 
to some great American Museum or Inter-national Exposition. 
We were well satisfied to enter it as willing captives of British 
and Bahama hospitality. 

To our civilian eyes its armament did not appear formidable. 
Its old and rusty ordinance seemed little better than Quaker guns. 
ISTo doubt, however, they exert as salutary a moral influence upon 
Nassau's suburban colored inhabitants as would the best rifled 
and breech-loading peacemakers of modern times. 

To us the fort had a special value by reason of the extensive 
and picturesque views it affords. In front, and far away to the 
right and left, were the strings of beaded keys with which the 
shores of New Providence are exquisitely Jewelled. Numberless 
rocks and reefs, lying in ambush in the shallows of the sea, were 
revealed by the white, foaming breakers that dashed over them. 
The iris colored and ribboned waters, with their settings of islands 
and keys, constituted a lovely sun embroidered border for the 
dark, deep blue dress of the ocean, which, in wide and waving 
folds, brushed against the sky. Turning to the opposite side, the 
contrast was most striking. The hill upon which we stood, 
Prospect Hill to the right, and the Blue Hills in the distance, 
are densely wooded banks and water sheds of a low, wet wilder- 
ness. We were very near to a colonial cajoital in which we had 
witnessed, in rather a small way, something of the pride and 
pomp and glory of this world. From our commanding positions 
we were able to observe its " back country," and to see no small 
portion of the island, yet we looked in vain for green pastures 
and flowery meads, for villages and farm houses, for orchards 
and gardens. The glassy surface of a small, salt and shallow 
lake alone broke the continuity of the low, thick, im^jenetrable 



6S ISLES op StTMMEB. 

iungle. There was much to please the eye, but not a little of 
the beauty was eliminated when we paused to muse and meditate. 

Before we had an opportunity to do much of the latter, we 
were invited by our military friends to exjDlore that portion of 
the fort which exists below the surface, in the very bowels of the 
amestone hill. Colored subordinates attended with lanterns, 
while the military officials devoted themselves to their guests, 
and, with a gallantry characteristic of military men, personally 
aided the ladies in treading the dark and dismal corridors, and 
exploring the windowless rooms which have been excavated in 
the rock. We entered the mouth of a small, round, deep well 
dole, and descended a long flight of spiral stairs cut in the rock. 
We traversed slowly and carefully in the darkness, one after the 
other, the small convolutions of this long, perpendicular, immov- 
able, excavated stone cork-screw. Our memory of this artificial 
military cave is not clear cut. It jiartakes somewhat of the dark- 
ness of the caverns we explored. The rooms and corridors, with 
their sides, and floors, and ceilings of stone, were no doubt made 
after some deeply cogitated and wise plan, but the most we rec- 
ollect is that they were dark and dismal dungeons. Here and 
there we remember to have seen loop holes, through which, from 
safe coverts, musketeers might shoot the men who should succeed 
in scaling the walls. 

If the reader desires, in a cheap and comparatively easy way, 
to experience the delightful sensations which a visit to Fort 
Charlotte's subterranean rooms is so well calculated to produce, 
he has only to go into some large deep cellar and follow a negro 
with a lantern for half an hour in the darkness, and his curiosity, 
if he is a reasonable man, will be fully gratified. 

Not far from our first landing place at the foot of the spiral 
stairs, we remember endeavoring to peer into the darkness of a 
well hole in the rock which had been sunk to the foundations of 



TftE QtJEEN-^S CHAMBES. §§ 

the hill, and to have drank some cool and pleasant-tasted water 
■which was drawn from it. 

Nor would we if we could forget "The Queen's Chamber," 
where, for the first time in our lives, we ate and drank at the 
expense of the British Government. With cheese and crackers 
and wine, the darkness was in a measure dispelled, and the re- 
presentatives of the old and new worlds there assembled, in those 
artificial Bahama caverns, drove a few nails into the great inter- 
national Platform of Peace. 

After drinking to the health of the British Queen, and to the 
prosperity and speedy and rapid promotion of the military gen- 
tlemen who had so kindly given us their time and attention, we 
ascended into the sunlight, and soon, resuming our carriages, 
returned to our hotel. 

The military barracks formerly occupied at Nassau an eleva- 
ted position on the grounds of Fort Charlotte. They were com- 
menced in 1790, and finished in 1794, and cost the home govern- 
ment about $150,000. After being used for between forty and 
fifty years, they Avere condemned as unhealthy, and taken down. 
An obelisque has been erected upon their site, which is utilized 
as a land-mark by vessels entering tlie harbor. Some of the 
Nassau people, we were told, claim that this removal was accom- 
plished under a false pretext; that it was "a put up job;" that 
the military officers desired to be nearer to Nassau while doomed 
upon the island of New Providence to play the part of Napoleon 
Bonaparte at St, Helena. The sickness complained of they 
allege, was caused by imprudence; some of the soldiers, after 
spending an evening in the city, were too heavily loaded with 
liquor to get back to their barracks without lying down to rest 
and sleep in the damp night air. Hence the fevers from which 
they suffered. But as the prevailing winds swept over the low 
wet lands of the island before they reached the old barracks, it 



6d iSLteS OP SUMMER, 

is quite probable that, at least during tlie wet rainy season, they 
were unhealthy. 

Little Fort Montague has been keeping watch and guard at 
the eastern entrance of Nassau harbor for a little less than a. 
century and a-half. It was finished in 1742. Lieut. Bruce, 
who planned it, and superintended its construction, had suffi- 
cient skill as an engineer, and talent as an author, to ensure its 
transmission to our own times doubly preserved. Its walls re- 
main intact, and the pen of its engineer secured for it an abiding 
place in letters. 

It is only as a relict and reminder of the by-gones that it has a 
present value. It is not garrisoned, but its old and rusty guns, 
in appearance at least, continue to guard Nassau's back door. 
Although we never entered its walls, it always calls up pleasant 
memories, as we often j^assed near it during the forenoon sails 
and afternoon rides that did so much to fill our cuj^ of pleasure 
at Nassau. 

The Governor of these islands, while Ave were in Nassau, sent 
a written message to the Bahama legislative assembly, signed by 
himself, in which he asked for an appropriation of £50 (about 
two hundred dollars) to " His Excellency in Council, to cause to 
be collected and printed the judicial decisions of the Superior 
Court of this colony during the last quarter of a century." Does 
this not indicate a great amount of legal business ? What an 
opening exists in this extensive group of islands, keys, rocks, 
and banks for young and aspiring members of the legal pro- 
fession! Only £50 wanted to collect and print all the deci- 
sions of all the Bahama Superior C-ourts for twenty-five 3'ears! 
And two dollars will purchase sugar cane enough to support a 
man and keep him fat and healthy for three months. Observe 
also how the Governor regards the maxim that "A man cannot 
expect others to think any better of him than he thinks of him- 



LtTXUEIANT GROWTH OF TITLES. 6l 

self/' — and styles himself ''His Excellency I" The more we 
study the royal institutions of the Bahamas, the more satisfied 
we become that our boasted republic is a failure, popular gov- 
ernments a mistake, and that it is about time to give some of 
our most skillful artists a liberal order for crowns, scepters, 
thrones, and all the gilded trappings necessary to set up one of 
those lofty imperial governments which are " ordained of God." 
Perhaps it mav be well to start one first upon the ''Thimble 
Islands,^ that our people may see with their own eyes how beauti- 
fully tliG thing works. 

In a newspaper which is issued there semi-weekly, entitled 
"The Nassau Guardian,'''' &c., we find under date of February 
24th, 1879, a letter of welcome to the newly elected Bishop of 
the diocese from the rector, wardens and vestry of a church up- 
on Harbour Island (one of the Bahamas) upon his first visit to 
that island, and the bishop's reply. The correspondence has no 
particular interest to the outside world except as it shows how 
great, windy titles thrive when transplanted upon these wonder- 
fully productive calcareous rocks. The Harbour Island church 
officials addressed this successor of poor and humble apostles as 
follows: * 

"The Right Reverend Dr. Francis A. Cranmer-Roberts, Lord Bishop of 
Nassau, Reverend Father in God." 

The Bishop in his reply concluded as follows: 

"Believe me to remain, 

"Your affectionate Father in God, 

' ' Fr ANOIS-N ASSAtr. " 

Now if these little rocky isles of tlie ocean can sport " Fathers 
in God," "Lord Bishoj)s," and other high ecclesiastical digni- 

6 



63 iSLtlS 6V SUMMED. 

taries, in addition to a Governor and lords temporal enough to 
stock a great empire, isn't it about time for the people of the 
states to wake up and do something? Haven't we all the materials 
necessary for the manufacture of whole regiments of ''lords 
temporal" and "Fathers in Grod," and why shouldn't we have 
our share? 

Nassau harbor is about one and one-half miles long, and two- 
fifths of a mile wide. Potter's Key runs mid- way down the har- 
bor from the east, and separates the eastern half into two parts. 
The quays and landing places are on the south side of the 
harbor, oj)posite the east end of Hog Island. The shipping- 
occupy the south side of the channel, which is separated from 
the north side by a bank having fifteen feet of water. The 
ordinary tides rise from tv\^o to three feet. It is not generally 
practicable for vessels to enter the harbor from the cast whicli 
draw over nine feet of water. 

Old wrecks and storm-worn and condemned vessels abound, 
and suggest to a stranger Nassau's importance as a seaport. Her 
back door is open only to small vessels, while her front door is 
barred. 

That the bar at the main entrance to Nassau harbor is often 
a very serious obstruction to navigation, is evident from tiie fact 
that the authorities have established the following bar signab: 

" If the harbor is approached with a northerly wind, and there 
is an uncertainty as to the state of the bar, should it be danger- 
ous to cross, a red flag will be hoisted on the signal staff near the 
lighthouse. * * Should it be possible, but too dangerous to 
get out, a white flag will be hoisted, and the pilot-boat will be 
seen in Avaiting just within the breakers, showing a flag red and 
white horizontally," &c. 

The Governor in his report for 1878, stated tliat in September 
of that year, for six successive days, no vessel was able to cross 



THE HARBOR AND BAR. 63 

the bar, on account of the disturbed state of the water, caused 
by the high winds and storms which had prevailed outside. Also 
that the harbor had not before been thus closed for so long a 
period within the memory of the oldest inhabitants. One can 
easily understand the danger of crossing at such times who has 
watched the high breakers, with foaming crests, leap along the 
bar from the back of Hog Island. It is often a pleasant and ex- 
citing pastime to approach this bar in a yacht, and watch the 
high waves as they approach, getting near enough to them to 
realize their power, and be baptised in their spray. How grandly 
they approach, with their high and foaming crests, ''white as 
carded wool,'' or an Alpine torrent I The waves seem marshalled 
for the onset. Like the measured tread of an army, they roll in 
upon the honey-combed and trembling isle at short and regular 
intervals. Here and there a daring column of assault leaps over 
a depression in the rocks, but the main body, baffled in its pur- 
pose, rolls and foams along the rocky rim of the shore, envelopes 
the lighthouse in a mantle of spray, traverses the whole length 
of Nassau bar, and spends itself at last upon the white shore of 
Silver Key. Like the heavy roll of distant thunder, but with 
more exultant tones^, loud voices from the troubled ocean mingle 
with the hoarser and louder reverberations that arise from the 
long line where sea and shore meet and struggle for the mastery. 
Following the first great breaker there is always a second, which 
in turn is succeeded by a third, at short and regular intervals. 
All travel the same path, and, iike swift moving snow-clad rail- 
road trains, glide rapidly across the bar. It was easy to believe 
them strange monsters of the sea, they sampled so well its mys- 
tery and power. 

A short lull occurs after the third breaker, of sufficient length 
to enable waiting vessels to cross the bar. This novel race by 
high mettled, spray-enveloped ocean steeds, with their long white 



64 iSLES OP SUMMER. 

foaming trains, always secures a high degree of pleasurable ex- 
citement. We always welcomed the showers of glistening pearls 
that on such occasions greeted, enveloped and followed us, as a 
holy baptism from JSTeptiine's sacred but unseen altars. 

The inscription upon a coraline monument which occupies a 
conspicuous position upon the sea bank opposite the western or 
main entrance to the harbor, is strongly suggestive of the danger 
which attends the crossing of the bar on some occasious. Below 
the names of five men is the following testimonial. 

" Who perished on the bar of Nassau harbor, February 26th, 
1861, while gallantly volunteering their services in the effort to 
save two men belonging to the pilot boat, which had been upset 
by a heavy sea. This monument is erected by the legislature of 
the Bahamas, to commemorate their gallant conduct and self- 
sacrificing heroism. " 

Thus does this monumental stone serve a double purpose. It 
honors not only the dead but the living, for the men who, in 
this substantial manner, recognized the noble virtues that ani- 
mated and inspired these obscure heroes in humble life, and thus 
caused them to inculcate a lesson of selt-sacrifice to every passer 
by, at the same time, all unconsciously, provided a memorial of 
their own justice, goodness and practical wisdom. 

On the first day of March, 1879, aided by a good glass, we 
Avitnessed a grand and extensive display of breakers from tlic 
cupola of the Victoria Hotel. The reefs, rocks, shoals, and out- 
lying keys were all marked and enlivened with the constant dash 
and play of the foaming breakers. The plucky resistance of 
Hog Island to the angry and impetuous assaults of the sea,, chal- 
lenged our admiration. The light house, which rises from that 
island's eastern terminus, a spindle of limestone sixty-eight feet 
liigh, had its top obscured Avith tlie spray of higli breakers that 
threatened to sweep it into the sea. We could not but muse and 



THE BREAKERS. SHELLS AND SHELL-WORK. 63 

meditate upon tlie question of its desirableness as a summer resi- 
dence, with a cyclone outside traveling at the rate of one hundred 
miles an hour. For we well knew that at times, not only 

" The startled waves leap over it ; the storm 
Smites it with all the scourges of the rain, 
But steadily against its solid form 
Press the great shoulders of the hurricane." 

As we saw it on that occasion, we realized more than ever be- 
fore its great importance, and the beneficence of its mission. 
We seemed to hear its hopeful and inspiring voice above the roar 
of the angry breakers ; 

" 'Sail on!' it said, 'sail on, ye stately ships,' 

And with j^our floating bridge the ocean span, 
Be mine to guard this light from all eclipse, 
Be yours to bring man nearer unto man!" 

The Bahamas offer special attractions to the conchologist. 
Their waters abound with a great variety of handsome shell-fish, 
and the shells, profusely scattered along the shores of the islands 
and keys, as the tides ebb, are exquisitely beautiful in form and 
color. They are mostly small, and so delicate and varied that 
with them the natives have long been accustomed to make vari- 
ous articles for the adornment of persons and parlors. They 
display much ingenuity and taste, and are said to be, if not su- 
perior, at least unsurpassed in this department of industrial 
esthetics. Some of the products of their skill, as well as shells 
that have been simply gathered from the beach and cured, are 
most always to be found for sale in the court of the hotel. Also 
delicate ornaments ingeniously made from the small scales of 
fish. 

In this connection, the conchs deserve special notice, as in the 



66 ISLlS OF STJMMEfi. 

past they furnished to tlie natives a most important article of 
diet, while the conch shells have been in demand in other coun- 
tries for their beauty, and have also to a considerable extent, 
been utilized m the manufacture of various articles of personal 
adornment. The conch also often secretes a pearl of considerable 
value. The exportation of conch shells for five years, from 1856 
to 1860 inclusive, aggregated $75,230, and for the next four 
years, (during the war of the rebellion), only $15,445. In the 
Governor's report for 1878 no mention is made of this item of 
trade, and I infer the value of conclis exported that year must 
have been very small. The concli is obtained by diving, and 
sometimes has been found in very extensive beds. This may be 
inferred from a passage on page 204 of McKinncn-s Tour, A. D. 
1803, in which he says — that the day after they passed Exuma, 
they ''steered towards a passage named Conch Cut, from a pro- 
digious quantity of conch shells which have been rolled from the 
[Great Bahama] bank or adjoining shores, and thrown together 
uear this narrow pass." At the time of the American revolution 
Df 1776, the Bahama people relied far more upon the water than 
the land for their support. Its fruitage of fish and wrecks never 
failed. They had no more occasion than the birds to sow and 
reap. At tlrat time they acquired the sobriquet ol Conchs. 
A writer from tlie Bahamas in 1824, states that many persons 
of the highest respectability were then distinguished by that 
name, and that they appeared to be not very proud of it, — which 
is not to be wondered at, as one might bo expected to be equall}^ 
pleased to be called an oyster or a clam. The wreckers of Key 
West, Fla., whoso ancestors came from the Bahamas, are,weare 
informed by an old sea captain, to this day also called conchs. 
The surfaces of the inner spiral convolutions of the shell of tlie 
conch are highly polished, and have a most beautiful jnnk color, 
which suggested to our mind the inquiry Avhether the living oc- 



iTASSAr's PUBLIC LIBRARY. 6? 

ciipant of this little but exquisitely furnished tenement is itself 
conscious of the gracefulness and beauty of the inner chambers 
of the house it occupies upon the submerged shelf of the ocean. 
It was a very pleasant surprise to find at Nassau a well selected 
Public Library of over seven thousand volumes. It does much 
credit to the government Avhich established and sustains it, and 
evidences wise statesmanship. Some of the other islands it is 
said, are similarly favored. A person, entitled to draw books, is 
permitted to take out five volumes at a time — a very liberal num- 
ber, and probably more than could be allowed if its patrons were 
more numerous. Isolated as New Providence is from the great 
world beyond the sea, the stranger, with the works of his favorite 
authors before him, is lonely no more. He is in the midst of a 
congenial world — the great world of letters — and no longer a. 
stranger in a strange land. His mind is enriched and seeded 
with the great thoughts of the world's greatest thinkers, present 
and past. Philosophers unlock the secrets of nature, and spread 
her most profound and subtle laws at his feet. Eomance lays 
bare for him the mysteries (to some extent distorted and too 
highly colored) of the human heart, and the lights and shadows 
of all phases of human life. History, with graphic pen, dipped 
alike in truth and fable, portrays the rise, the decadence, and 
the fall of states and empires, and points out the deep-seated 
causes that make and ruin nations. Divines cluster around him, 
and, while some for a greater or less fee permit him to look 
through their little pieces of smoked glass at the invisible world, 
others, with lips hallowed with celestial fire from God's own 
altar, discourse eloquently upon the mysteries of life, death and 
immortality. While the poet, in soothing numbers, sings in- 
spired songs, conducts him on 'fancy's wings through all space, 
and opens for him alike grim purgatorial doors and the golden 
gates of the celestial city. 



68 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

Even in tlie drowsy air of the Bahamas a studious man is not 
satisfied or liappy if withdrawn entirely from tlie world of letters. 
He must wander at will in what to him is the very garden of the 
gods — those literary fields where is found the choicest fruitage 
of the most gifted and cultivated minds. In the mild climate of 
Italy, the great Cicero found coveted rest and repose, not in list- 
less idleness, but in a change of literary work. Mind, equally 
with muscle, is toned up and strengthened by exercise, and soft- 
ens in voluptuous repose. The tired intellectual worker who 
seeks in Nassau rest, may, therefore, in moderation avail himself 
of the benefits of its library. With leisure and a library, his 
mind will not become flabby while his body grows fat. 

The building used for a library is of octagon form, built of 
stone, and was formerly a prison. Each of its eight alcoves has 
a window, so that it is well supplied with light and air. Con- 
nected with the library there is a newspaper and magazine de- 
partment, which adds materially to its value, A beginning (a 
small nest egg) has also been made for a museum of natural 
history. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Royal Vict&ria Hotel. Scenes daily tcitnessed in its Court, Sacred 
Songs of the Negroes. 

" Whoe'er has traveled life's dull round, 
Where'er his stages may have been, 
May sigh to think he still has found 
The warmest welcome at an inn." — Shenstone. 

The words above quoted need to be qualified, for a landlord's 
welcome is purchased by his guest's money, and disappears the 
moment tnat gives out. The destitute traveler is not presumed 
to be a disguised angel, and the doors of few public or private 
houses swing open at his approach, except for the purpose of 
letting the dogs loose on him. Hotels are not kept for tramps, 
and the latter receive but a cold welcome even in poor houses 
which the public maintain in part for their benefit. 

We were much pleased with the Royal Victoria Hotel, and re- 
ceived many little attentions and kindnesses at the hands of its 
proprietor, (Mr. J. M. Morton), which it is a pleasure to ac- 
knowledge, but the visitors from the states must remember that 
Nassau's justly celebrated hostelry is conducted on business prin- 
ciples, and that plenty of money or a good letter of credit is an 
essential requisite of ''the warmest welcome" of which the poet 
Shenstone sung. 

In a subsequent chapter, reference is made to the object for 
which this hotel was built by the Bahama government, and to 
the important part it played in the blockade running business 

69 



70 ISLES OF SlTMMEE. 

during the late American war. It is so essential to the health 
and comfort of invalids and tourists visiting Nassau, that we add 
such other facts concerning it as strangers proposing to visit the 
place will 'naturally desire to know. 

This hotel stands upon high ground, a little below the crest of 
the hill upon which Nassau is built. Three-fourths of the square 
enclosed by Sherley, East, East Hill, and Parliament streets, is 
occujjied as a site for the hotel and for hotel purposes. It faces 
the north, and commands, from all its front windows and piazzas, 
a very fine view of the harbor, its sheltering island, some neigh- 
boring keys, and the out-lying ocean. It overlooks the judicial, 
legislative and library buildings, and many private buildings 
Avith their embowering trees. Its elevation and exposure to the 
full force of the prevailing winds, secures for it the full benefit 
of those from the ocean, which, freighted with refreshment and 
health, seldom cease to blow. 

The hotel proper is two hundred feet in length, four stories 
high, and is well and substantially built of coralline lime- 
stone, and is surmounted by an observatory which commands 
a very extensive and fine view. Piazzas ten feet wide surround 
each of the three upper stories, upon Avliich the windows, gen- 
erally reaching to the floor, open; thus furnishing convenient 
places for promenades and sittings in the outside air, though 
interfering somewhat at times, with the much to be desired 
quiet and privacy of the adjacent rooms. Projecting from 
the center of the building, directly over and of the same size 
with the mam parlor, there is a piazza in the third story, o^ien 
on the east, north and south sides, Avhicli affords an extensive 
vicAV greatly diversified and charmingly beautiful. Spacious 
halls extend through the center of each story of the long build- 
ing, with tiers of rooms upon each side. The old King's College 
School building constitutes a part of the hotel. It is in a line 



THE KOYAL VICTOEIA HOTEL. 71 

with the new hotel building, and is connected with it by large 
heavy blinds. It has stone stuccoed columns in front, its prin- 
cipal rooms are large and well lighted, and admit of more privacy 
and quiet than most of the rooms in the new building. The 
dining room occupies all of the first floor north of the central 
portion of the hotel, and large windows surround it upon three 
sides. It has three tiers of tables, and is unusually light, airy 
and pleasant. A refreshing sea-breeze seldom failed to make it 
agreeably cool in the middle of the hottest days, and in no in- 
stance while Ave were there was it at night too cool or hot for 
comfort. Hotel parties, and occasional evening entertainments 
Avere given in the dining room, and when its Avails Avere adorned 
with j)almctto leaves, and decorated Avith English and American 
flags, it did not need the gay dance, SAveet music and the land- 
lord's generous and bountiful entertainment to make it attractive 
even to the mere looker-on. 

The x^irlors are smaller than those of large hotels at the north, 
but the cliiniite is so mild the parlors are less frequented. 

The hotel is neatly furnished and Avell kej^t. The meats, 
mauy canned vegetables, and the smaller fruits and other sup- 
plies for the establishment, are imported from Ncav York. Packed 
in ice, in large refrigerators, every steamer brings large additions 
to the landlord's stores. A very superior class of colored Avaiters, 
uncommonly intelligent, and eflicient, materially add to the com- 
fort and hapjiiness of the guests. A gentleman Avell qualified to 
judge in such matters expressed to us the opinion, founded on 
his personal knowledge, that there is no hotel in the West In- 
dies equal to the Victoria, though some have cost more money. 

We were informed by some of the visitors at Nassau, that this 
fine hotel has not always been Avell kept, and that its j^atrons 
have some times fared badly, and been the victims of extortion. 
With an incompetent landlord in charge, and no other suitable 



72 ISLES OF SUMMEK. 

house to go to, Nassau would be far less desirable as a •winter 
resort than we found it. For the invalid esj)ecially a good tem- 
porary home is essential to both health and comfort. We re- 
member to have heard only one comj)laint of its management 
while we Avere there, and that was because the breakfast and 
dinner tables were for only a portion of the season supplied with 
oranges, many deeming that fruit almost a necessary of life in 
Florida and the Bahama^. 

Bath rooms, supplied with hot and cold water, constitute a 
pkrt of the establishment, and accommodate those who do not 
indulge in the luxury of a bath in the sea, there being nothing 
in the temperature of the air or water to prevent sea bathing at 
Nassau every day in the year. The ^arice of board is three dollars 
a day, and while for many it is a large sum to pay, yet persons 
who had boarded for a while at some of the cheaper houses in- 
formed us that they obtained more for their money at the Eoyal 
Victoria than any where else. Washing is an extra, the charge 
being seventy-five cents per dozen. 

A small building at the west entrance of the hotel grounds is 
used as a barber shop, and for drinking and billiard purposes. 
North of it is the hotel garden. 

The court in front of the princijial north entrance of the Eoyal 
Victoria Hotel is entered on three sides through eight large, high 
archways, and its ceiling separates it from the main parlor of the 
hotel, which is projected out from the main building. Being 
large, airy, and shaded at all times, it is a favorite place of resort 
by the guests of the house. As a consequence, the colored yacht- 
men, including the smooth-tongued, exj^erienced and skillful 
Captain Sampson, and the good-natured, capable, but less showy 
Captains Johnson and Mitchell, when not on the water, were 
ever, during the pleasant days, to be seen arranging for marine 
exploring parties. The varied attractions of the adjacent waters, 



THE HOTEL OOtTRT. 73 

i&lands and. keys were portrayed with a fervid eloquence which 
never ceased to interest. Near by were numerous carriages for 
hire, which were much patronized. This court is also a great 
bazaar, to which the colored people of all ages and of both sexes 
who have anything to sell, resort in large numbers to dispose of 
their wares. Here, therefore, is offered an excellent opportunity 
to study the products of these rocky islands and of the adjacent 
waters, which is much improved and enjoyed. Many kinds of 
fruits, flowers and other vegetable products, corals in great 
variety, sugar cane and candies, sponges of all sizes and qualities, 
shells exquisitely shaped and beautifully colored, shell-work of 
unsurpassed excellence, canes of the orange, lignum vitse, ebony, 
satin and other woods, and many other articles make up their 
stock in trade. Here also the colored boys came to scramble, 
in the most laughable manner, for pennies, thrown to them for 
that purpose upon the hard pavements of lime-stone and brick. 
When down, and struggling for the prize, in a wild tangle of 
arms and legs, they seemed a hideous, writhing mass of black and 
ragged reptiles of the most lively kind. When up, with faces 
beaming with fun and frolic, their eager calls for *'massa" to 
*' trow a penny dis way " soon dispelled the delusion. In these 
contests, as well as on other occasions, their good nature aild 
amiability are pre-eminently exemplified. 

For some days after we first arrived at the Koyal Victoria, 
young Africa gave frequent vocal entertainments in the court of 
the hotel. The voices of some were soft and musical, and they 
sang the religious songs which they had learned in " the shouting 
meetings," with perfect abandon, and with a fervor and zeal that 
glorified their dusky faces, swayed their bodies, and extended 
down their arms to the tips of their fingers. A sacred waltz was 
sometimes performed by " Sankey " and his cousin, two little dots 
of children, in the most cunning and comical manner imaginable, 

7 



71 ISLES OF SUMMBE. 

while they sang to the rhythm of the dance, ''^0 it will be joy- 
ful," &c. When the miniature boy and girl near the close sepa- 
rated a little, alternately approached each other and withdrew, 
ogling, twisting, bowing and coquetting, while they continued 
to sing with many repetitions — ''Meet to part no more; meet 
to part no more," the gravity of the audience was sure to give 
way in laughter and applause. 

The songs sung on these occasions probably have never been 
printed or reduced to writing. Having taken some of them 
down, we subjoin them for the benefit of those of our readers 
who may have a curiosity to know something in regard to their 
character, although the words alone give only a faint representa- 
tion of their merits when wedded by these uncultured peo]3le to 
music, and sung with a fervid enthusiasm, born of a native love 
of melody and of genuine devotional feelings. A prominent 
member of the choir is Charley, the basket boy merchant — a 
smart, bright, wide-awake little fellow, who ever has a sharp eye 
to business. 

A marked feature in the following was the rendering of the 
" Oh's," the notes ascending and descending the scale in a very 
lively manner, and the musical expression and richness of tone 
added greatly to the effect. 



1, 

I'd rather pray my life away, 

Oh! oh! oh! oh! 
Than go to hell and burn away. 

Chobus. 
Save me Lord from sinking down, 

Oh I oh! oh! oh! 
Save me Lord from sinking down. 



SACEED SGITGS OF THE STEGROES. 75 



I had a book — 'twas given to me, — 
Save me Lord from sinking down, 
In every line was victory. 

Choeus. 
Save me, &c. 

3. 

I had a book — 'twas given to me,- 

In every line was victory ; 
I had a book — 'twas given to me, 

And every line convicted me. 
Chorus. 
Save me, &c. 

4. 
Satan made a catch at me, 
He miss my soul and he catch my sins. 
Choeus. 
Save me, &c. 



WRESTLING WITH THE ANGELS. 

Tell me Lord, shall I be there now, 

To sit on Zion's hill ; 
To wrestle with the angels all night. 

Until the break of da3\ 
I'll wrestle with the angels 

'Till the break of day. 

Tell me Lord, shall I be there 
To sit on Zion's hill all night, 

And take a wrestle with the angels, 
All night ! all night I 
Until the break of day? 



.7-6 • ISLES OF SUMMER. 

O tell me God, shall I be there now, 

O tell me God, shall I be there now, 

O tell me God, shall I be there now, 

To sit on Zion's hill. 

To wrestle with the angels 

All night! All night! 

Till the break of day . 

To an uncultivated, excitable people, strongly imbued with a 
taste for music, there is something grand and inspiring in the 
great volumes of melody which issue from the organ, when its 
keys are skillfully manipulated. Thrilled by the great tidal 
waves of harmony, no wonder that it serves them as a symbol of 
the ravishing music with which all the arches and domes of 
heaven are sujiposed to resound. Hence the following: 

Unbelievers — hear the organ roll ! 

Hear the organ roll ! 

Hear the organ roll ! 
Don't you hear the organ roll, 

On Mount Calvary ! 

Hear the org/an roll ! 
Street strollers — hear the organ roll 

Hear the organ roll ! 

Hear the organ roll ! ^ 

Don't you hear the organ roll ! 

On Mount Calvary ! 

In the next verse " Rum Drinkers " and afterwards ''Back- 
sliders " and others are each in like manner called upon to " Hear 
the organ roll," and tlie enthusiasm and power of musical ex- 
pression of the vocalists seemed to increase until all appeared at 
last to have reached the very top of ]\Iount Calvary, — a moun- 
tain they evidently believe exists somewhere in the happy land 
which lies just over the river of death. 



Hriie following is indicative of the fact that to some extent the 
negro mind in Nassau has been affected hy its contact with Eo- 
man Catholicism here, or upon some of the Spanish islands. 

Go and carry the news, 

Go and carry the news to Mary, 

I'm bound down to Glory ! 
Go and carry the news to Mary, 
Go and carry the news to Mary, 

I'm bound down to glory ! 

When Satan says I need not fear, 
He'll have my soul in the judgment day ; 
I'd rather pray my life away, 
Than go to hell and spend one day; 

Go and carry the news to Mary, 

Go and carry the news to Mary, 
I'm bound down to glory 1 

Carry the news, 

Go and carry the news I 

Sister — carry, carry the news I 

I'm bound down to glory. 
Go and carry the newsl 
Qo and carry the news ! 
Go and carry the news I 

I'm bound down to glory I 

Here is a sacred song which is particularly adapted to the in- 
dolent habits of life of this idle people. A heaven which neces- 
sitated labor would have very little attraction for them: 

Come along my sister, come along. 
Come along my sister, come along, 
For the angels say there's nothing to do - 

But to ring the charming bell. 
We are almost gone, we are almost gone, 

But the angels say there's nothing to do 



v8 tsm$ 6f strMMfift. 

But to ring that charming bell. 
Come along my sister, come along, 
For the angels say there's nothing to do 
But to ring that charming bell. 

The following little piece is said to liave Leen composed bj a 
colored girl a short time before her death. In the ringing of 
heayen's bells, the singing of the angels, and mounting the hill 
of Zion, her vivid imagination anticij^ated and had a foretaste of 
the happiness that awaited her in the other world. It certainly- 
produced a cheery, comforting effect when musically and s|)irit- 
edly rendered by the dusky vocalists: 

The heavenly bells are ringing, 

Archangels singing. 
The heavenly bells are ringing,-™ 

O rise loving sister. 

Let us go to Zion's hill ! 

Let us go to Zion's hill I 
The heavenly bells are ringing, 

Archangels singing, 
The heavenly bells are ringing, 

In the morning. 

At last the penny scramblers and the sweet singers of Xassau 
caused so much noise, and such a disturbance of the quiet which 
usually prevades these dreamy shores, that a man with a long 
iinsentimental whip was sent, whenever they assembled, to drive 
them away. Still, however, they occasionally appeared, and, 
for the base coins of the strangers, exercised those gifts divine, 
which, like milk in a cocoanut, one, from outward appearance, 
would never for a moment suppose to exist. 



CHAPTER V. 

Flora of the Isles of Summer. The FerUlmng Air. Large Trees from 
Stone Quarries, and upon the Tops of Stone Walls. Trees that will not Die 
and cannot be Killed. Trees Within Trees. The Monlcey Tamarind, the 
Wild Fig, and the Geiba or Silk Cotton Trees. Thompson's Folly. Palm 
Trees— the Cocoanut, the African, the Cabbage and the Palmetto. The India 
Rubber Tree. The Singing Tree. The Tamarind Trees, and Trees Valuable 
for Timber, for Dyes, for their Spicy Bark, and for Medicinal Purposes. 
The Natural more Wonderful than the Supernatural, 

"And all the broad leaves over me 
Clapped their little hands in glee, 

With one continued sound, — 
A slumbrous sound, a sound that brings 

The feeling of a dream. " 

When visiting for the first time the isles of unending summer, 
one cannot fail to be deeply impressed by their new, diversified, 
and curious forms of vegetable life. It matters not that he is 
not a close observer of nature, or an educated and trained botan- 
ist. Perhaps if he Avere he could not, by reason of his profound 
technical learning, so well communicate to common minds, the 
impressions and thoughts which such scenes make and inspire. 
The learning of some seems to make them useful only to scholars. 

Upon the island of New Providence we trod what was to us a 
new world, and every climbing vine and floAvering shrub, and 
branching tree ministered to our happiness. We seemed to our- 
selves to be a newly made Adam first introduced to his garden, 

79 



§6 tSLfiS 6¥ SUMMEfi. 

fortunately relieved, however, from all obligation to " dress and 
keep it." If we liad the learning of an old and experienced 
botanist, we should have seen too much. As it was, we saw as 
much as, untrained and unpracticed, we could well master, or 
describe in a single chapter. A feAV pen-photograjDhs of some of 
the more striking floral scenes and pictures which we witnessed, 
may communicate to our readers something of the interest and 
pleasure which the reality produced xipon the mind of the author. 

The first impression was one of astonishment at finding upon 
such almost naked rocks anything above lichens and the smaller 
and simpler forms of vegetable life. But nature is never as un- 
just or partial as she often appears to the casual observer. When 
she withholds with one hand, she, with the other, is busy 
dispensing lavishly her gifts. Tlio principle of comj^ensation 
exists everyAvhere throughout her Avide domain. Human life 
and human experience teem with evidences of this great and 
universal truth, while the material world, in all its varied and 
wondrous forms, is permeated with the same great principle. 
Upon the Bahama islands it is manifested on every hand. The 
want of soil to cover the nakedness of the rocks finds material, 
though not full compensation, in a climate so happily constitu- 
ted that life exists and thrives largely upon air. 

Mr. Charles Burnside (whoso kind and obliging attentions we 
are glad of this opportunity to gratefully acknowledge) took us 
to the coral limestone quarry upon his premises, to which avc have 
already referred, from which, for a hundred years or more, stone 
has been taken for building purposes — including stone for the 
Royal Victoria Hotel. On the floor of that quarry, bottomed 
upon rock, and upon nothing else, Ave saAV in full and lusty vigor, 
a Avild fig tree, a species of the banyan, Avhich in forty years had 
attained a great size, its many large branches towering high up 
in the air with a lateral spread of about eighty feet. It was full 



"WILD riG TREES. 81 

of fruit in every stage of development, tlie ripened figs being of 
the size of tlie end of one's little finger, but as perfect in their 
parts as the larger figs of commerce. Little lizards, like embryo 
monkeys, were here and there seen through the green foliage, 
while below, sheep were browsing, and eating the fallen fruit, 
docile and happy, growing for the shearer their wool, and 
fattening their carcasses for the butcher. These figs are to the 
taste sweet and pleasant, and, though so small, their immense 
number make them valuable. Children eat them, and upon them 
hogs are fattened. Under this tree, the top of the rocky floor 
was covered with a net work of its roots, one of which pene- 
trated the cellar of Mr. Burnside, some three hundred feet distant. 

We saw two of the same species of banyan tree that had ob- 
tained a large growth from seed blown by the wind or depos- 
ited by birds on top of a stone wall. This wail was composed of 
irregular fragments, and was two and a-half feet wide at the top 
and about four feet high. The seed there germinated, pushed 
out their little fibi'ous roots, which crept down each side of the 
stone wall, and fastened to and extended among the rocks in the 
fields which the wall in part inclosed. These rootlets enlarged 
with the growth of the trees, wliile from the top of the wall 
stems pushed up into the air. One of the trees had five stems 
whose diameters varied from six to twelve inches. On the top 
of a stone wall within the grounds of the Victoria Hotel, there 
is the stump of a tree a foot in diameter, which unquestionably 
grew there, as its roots are still seen where they entered and 
pushed out from among the stones of the wall. Having had 
some experience in setting out, manuring, watching and water- 
ing trees in Connecticut, the pluck, enterprise, persistence and 
independence of these wild Bahama trees challenged our warm- 
est admiration. 

Mr, Burnside also called our attention to a banyan tree upon 



§2 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

liis grounds near his front gateway, having a spread of about one 
hundred feet, inside tlie body of wliich there is the dead and 
decayed body of a Pride of India tree. Mr. Burnside is about 
thirty-five years of age, and wlien a boy, as he said, he ''often 
went all through the Pride of India tree, and there was nothing 
of the banyan tree to be seen." A banyan seed in some way — 
perhaps as the result of one of the experiments in raising trees 
of some bold and intelligent bird — found lodgment where the 
branches of the old tree diverged from its stem, from ten to 
fifteen feet from the ground, and, no way dismayed at the dis- 
couraging prospect, it did not repine at its hard destiny, or 
arraign the goodness of Providence, but concluded to make a 
bold and heroic struggle for existence. Its little, minute fibrous 
rootlets started out upon a seemingly hopeless mission. To the 
Pride of India, with its graceful branches, beautiful foliage, 
and large and fragrant clusters of flowers, they were like so 
many gossamer threads. But the days and months and years 
rolled ouo The rootlets noiselessly and stealthily passed down 
upon all sides of the trunk that was giving them a support, 
fastened into the rocks, and the doom of the Pride of India was 
forever sealed. The law of ''the survival of the fittest" was 
exemplified. The little rootlets around the trunk enlarged into 
stems, perfectly encircled the old tree with a living wall of a tree 
of a most rampant habit of growth, and now, only by a close and 
critical inspection, can a stranger ascertain that tliis ifiimense 
banyan tree perfectly encloses the dead body of a victim, whose 
life it has, anaconda fashion, crushed out. 

Mr. C. Waterton in his "Wanderings," states that in Demerara, 
S. A. , the wild fig tree in a similar manner often "rears itself from 
one of the thick branches of tlie top of the mora," feeds upon 
the juices of the latter, and in turn is taken possession of by 
yines, and doomed to contribute a portion of its juices towards 



'r'E'NACtT'Y OV TRiElE-LTFti. 83 

tHeir support and growth, so that "'with their usurpation of the 
resources of the fig tree, and the fig tree of the mora, the mora, 
unable to support a charge which nature never intended it sliould, 
dies under its burden, and tlien the fig tree and its usurping pro- 
geny of A'ines, receiving no more succor from their late foster 
parent, drop and perish in their turn." The piratical fig tree we 
have described appeared to be receiving all its nourishment from 
the rocks to which its net-Avork of roots were fastened, and from 
the air that enveloped its wide spreading and lusty branches. 
No usurping vines imperilled its life. 

In the destructive hurricane of 1866, some six or seven large 
trees were torn up by the roots in one of Mr. Burnside's lots. 
One tree which Avas completely prostrated, still adhered to the 
rocks by a few of its unsevered roots, and we saw it green and 
grooving still, as if nothing unusual or adverse had happened. 

A large Jamaica tamarind tree, four or five feet in diameter 
at its base, Avas at the same time also prostrated, and it had thus 
far resisted all the efforts of the father of Mr. Burnside durins: 
his life, and of his son since his death, to kill and get rid of it. 
Fires Avere built around it, but it Avas too full of sap to burn, and 
the baffled fires went out. They " hacked it" as they had time 
and opportunity, but the wounds soon healed and Avere covered 
Avith new bark. It Avas in the way, but they had thus far been 
unable to wholly abate the nuisance. At one time a large section 
of the trunk Avas detached and afterwards removed with very 
great difficulty by piece-meal. After more than twelve years, 
some six or scA^en feet in length of the butt remains. It is fas- 
tened to the rocks by a very small number of the old, and by large 
re-inforcements of new roots, AA^hich this butt end of the old trunk 
has pluckily and persistently formed and tied to the under-lying 
rocks. Every Avound it has during all these years received, has 
been perfectly healed, and over the whole of the part from which 



^4 ISLtiS OS- StJMiyfEfe. 

the section was detached — a circle not far from four feet in 
diameter — a new and healtliy bark has grown, while small new 
sprouts have in different places made their appearance. Such 
tenacity of life and recuperative energy we had not supposed ex- 
isted anywhere. Were the climate of the Bahamas as stimulating 
to mind as it is to matter in some of its forms, its inhabitants 
Avould intellectually far excel all other people past or present. 
Notwithstanding the " never say die " pluck of this memento of 
the great hurricane of '66, its continuance for many years is also 
in part traceable to the absence of proper tools and appliances for 
its removal. The mechanic arts are there still in a state of rude 
and primitive simplicity. Aside from the building of small ves- 
sels of not exceeding a hundred tons, and at rare intervals a new 
store or dwelling, there is little skilled labor, and an official re- 
port states that their only manufactures are ropes, baskets and 
palmetto hats. 

Two or three small sugar mills run by horse power, and a grind 
stone in the rear of the hotel, rotated by hand, were the only 
labor-saving machines we saw upon the island. The pine trees 
are cut down often, and jDerhaps generally, with long knives. 
They are not very large, and tlie swinging of an ax would require 
too great an exertion in this climate to suit the taste of its ami- 
able, good-natured and politically free negroes. 

The Jamaica tamarind tree is sometimes called the Monkey 
Tamarind, from the fact that occasionally in Jamaica a monkey 
will insert its paw, when open and extended, through the end 
of the large, hard, woody pod, which tlie tree produces, for the 
purpose of obtaining the seeds which it contains. Grasping 
these, his paw, when closed, is too large for the hole, and either 
because he is too stubborn and willful to open his jDaw, or because 
he has not sufficient intelligence and presence of mind to do so, 
he holds on and pulls, and pulls and holds on, until one very 



liiucli his inferior in climbing trees discovers and captures him. 
Thongli higher in the scale of life, and rounding out a larger 
and more showy link, man, in ways equally stubborn and stupid, 
often rushes upon and invites his own destruction. Let us there- 
fore, pity these unfortunates, and not laugh at them. 

A specimen of the Ficus Indica, or banyan tree of India, is 
erroneously supposed to exist near Nassau, and strangers often 
leave that city firmly convinced that they have added to their 
new and pleasant experiences a personal acquaintance with that 
famous tree of the Orient. An intelligent native merchant of 
Nassau, Avho is officially connected with our own Government, 
informed us that the (so-called) banyan tree near Nassau had 
been imported — that it bore no fruit, and that it is the only gen- 
uine India banyan tree upon the island of New Providence. 
He did not intentionally misrepresent, and would generally be 
considered good authority, but he was mistaken. Confident that 
we had seen little tigs growing upon the tree in question, we 
visited it again, examined it more critically, and severed and 
carried away from it branches of wild figs in every stage of de- 
velopment. It is a species of the Ficus, has the same habit of 
growth with the Ficus Indica, but is identical in kind with the 
other wild fig trees upon the island of New Providence, and ex- 
hibits far more strikingly than any of the others those peculiar- 
ities which have made the banyan tree of India so famous. 

An intelligent and pleasing correspondent of the Troy Budget 
(the Hon. C. L. McArthur) writes concerning the Nassau ban- 
yan tree, that ''after its main limbs have grown out from its 
trunk some twenty or thirty feet, the hranches turn down to the 
earth, taking root, and forming a column of support for its pa- 
rent branch, as well as another tree of itself." *' It is a very 
curious tree, furnishing friendly shade, ever extending by new 
trunks, ever widening its circle hy Us top striking down and 

8 



86' ISLES OF StJMMEft. 

taking root, and every new growth and stem being still a part 
of the parent tree to which it is ligamented as were the Siamese 
twins." No donbt Mr. McArtlmr visited tlie tree he has under- 
taken to describe, and being a man of ability and literary culture, 
his testimony is that of a credible witness — and yet, he is con- 
tradicted by the facts. He was, as all are who see it, astonished 
and delighted to find a tree possessing such a peculiar habit of 
growth, and multiplying itself into a large grove or small forests 
But he failed to make such a close and critical examination as 
was necessary in order to enable him to enlighten his readers in 
regard to the method by which the singular result is produced. 
Had he done so, he would have discovered that the branches do 
not "^turn down to the earth and take root," nor does ''its 
top strike down and take root," but from the outstretching 
branches, at various distances from the stem or trunk, roots de- 
scend a distance of from ten to fifteen feet through the air, fasten 
to tJie rocky bottom, enlarge from year to year, and thus by sin- 
gle and clustered living columns support the immense branches 
f]-om which as roots they descended. These roots thicken and 
enlarge as they grow, and we saw some on their way to the sur- 
face rocks from one to three inches in diameter, bearded at the 
end with a long hairy fibrous covering, which, we presume, ab- 
sorb nutriment from the surrounding air. 

Milton makes a similar mistake, and if he did not originate 
the error he has given it a wide circulation. He refers to the 
Ficus Indica, but this tree also is extended by means of roots 
which the lateral branches send doAvn to the ground from an 
elevation above it of a number of yards. In the following lines 
in Paradise Lost he has, in describing it, drawn in this respect 
upon his imagination: 



THE BAKTAK TREE. ^f 

" The fig tree, not that kind for fruit renowned, 
But such, as at this day to Indians known 
In Malabar or Decan, spi'eads her arms, 
Brandling so iroai and long, that in the ground 
The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow 
About the mother tree, a pillar'd shade, 
High o'er arched, and eclioing walks between." 

These roots grow and become important columns of support 
to the wide and ever extending branches, many of them being 
multiform or clustered, forming 

" Huge trunks — and each particular trunk a growth 
Of intertwisted fibres serpentine, 
Up-coiling, and inveterately convolved— 
* ^ * * * * a pillar'd shade." 

Some of these root trunks are not only singularly entwined 
and twisted, but they have looped upon and attached to them 
small aerial rootlets which add a new feature unlike anything we 
had observed. Evidently little roots, in drop^Ding down from the 
nearly horizontal branches, stopped on the way at different dis- 
tances, varying from a few inches to a foot or more, to rest and 
establish new bases of supply, and fastening, by a living growth, 
to one of the root columns of support, they have pushed out 
again into the air, and after making a fitrther growth of a few 
inches, they have again sto^Dped for a similar purpose, fastened 
to the same column in the same way, then pushed out again, re- 
peating the process until eitlier the rocks are reached or they are 
absorbed and lost in the older and larger growth to Avhich they 
have in different places adhered. 

This tree is situated upon a clearing a little to the east of Nas- 
sau, and a few rods from the highway which skirts the harbor. 
It is near a dwelling house known as ''Thompson's Folly" — a 



SS ISt/teS OF fetJMMER. 

tall wooden building, unsheltered, and so exposed to the wind 
that the natives believed thart it would fall an easy prey to the first 
hurricane that should visit Nassau after its erection. They 
therefore gave it the name which it still bears. But the evil 
prophets of Nassau seem to have been uninspired, and, as if to 
discredit and confound them, the fearful and most destructive 
hurricane of 1866, while it turned many a solid and costly struc- 
ture into a ruin, left this house intact and unharmed. Although 
it survived the hurricane, it has been ruined by a bad name. 
There it stands, gloomy and solitary — treeless, unprotected, and 
unoccupied. Commanding a fine view, cooled by the trade winds, 
fanned by every breeze that ruffles the surface of the neighboring 
ocean, stately as an English official, seemingly in a good state of 
repair, and having a very famous and curious tree for its nearest 
neighbor, it has been rendered absolutely worthless, good for 
nothing but for fire-wood in a place where fires are a nuisance, 
because some meddlesome people have given it a bad name. 
Thus has it often happened that Slander has given to Innocence 
a name which has ever after remained like the brand of the divine 
displeasure upon the forehead of Cain. * 

A low terrace has at some time been made under this tree out 
of small fragments of coral limestone, thereby securing a more 
level surface for those who might repose or have picnics in its 
cool and grateful shade. This is now thickly covered with a net- 
work of roots, and the branches and roots have extended far be- 
yond its limits. Springing out of the rocks under tlic tree there 

* Since this Avas written, and during tlie time of our second visit to Nassau, 
" Tlie Folly" was temporarily occupied bj^a medical gentleman and his fami- 
ly, who, it was currently reported, for prudential reasons, left their more 
central city residence, (located not far from our hotel,) which a malignant 
disease had invaded. In a subsequent chapter this disease will be more par- 
ticularly mentioned and considered. 



SLACK BfiAHD'S TRfiE. Alia PtAiTTS. §9 

Is growing a species of cactus, wild coSee bushes, and vines and 
shrubs with which we were not familiar. The top of the tree 
towards the harbor, being more exposed to the wind, was evi- 
dently rudely trimmed and dismembered by the hurricane, and 
the growth and development appear to have been mostly on the 
opposite side. 

It was vmder a wild fig or banyan tree that Black Beard, the 
noted pirate, in the early history of Nassau, "used to sit in 
council amongst his banditti, concerting or promulgating his 
plans and exercising the authority of a magistrate." The trunk 
of it existed and was seen by McKinnen nearly a hundred years 
afterwards, in 1804, as he states in his ''Tour through the West 
Indies." The author of "Letters from the Bahama Islands, 
written in 1823-4," states that "the remains of an immense tree 
are to be seen on which it is said the renowned Black Beard hung 
his prisoners, and it is supposed by many that large treasures 
were buried near it by the pirates." A recent Nassau magazine 
writer states that "Black Beard's tree" used to stand at the 
north-west corner of the eastern parade ground. 

Some of the highway fences in the outskirts of Nassau furnish 
strong evidences of the favorable influence of this climate uj^on 
vegetable life and growth. The posts in a green state, unhewn 
and unmorticed, having in some ingenious manner been made to 
assume an upright position, are pushing out and developing 
branches, apparently unconscious that from some tree in the 
forest they have been dismembered. 

There are upon the island many species of air plants, and one 
of these being suspended wpoii the Avail of our room, obtained 
nutriment enough from the surroundinsi; air alone to make it an 
object of attraction to a vegetable parasite, and a beautiful and 
delicate little vine was soon discovered feeding upon its juices, 
which grew, budded, blossomed and flourished, until the poor 



% ISLES 6'F &VM^m. 

little air plant, tired of keeping boarders while only living upon 
air, turned yellow and died. 

A most remarkable specimen of the ceiba or silk cotton tree 
may be seen in the rear of the central one of a collection of pub- 
lic buildings which form three sides of a quadrangle at the south- 
Avest corner of Bay and Parliament streets. It has a spread of 
one hundred and sixteen feet from east to west, and of ninety 
feet in the opposite directions. Its trunk is immense. Around 
and forming part of it are huge leaves or partitions of wood some 
five or six inches thick, which are more or less twisted; these 
start from a point from ten to fifteen feet from the ground and, 
reaching the earth at an angle of something like forty-five degrees, 
form around the tree half-a-dozen large openings or chambers 
resembling somewhat horse-stalls. There are a number of silk 
cotton trees upon the grounds of the Eoyal Victoria Hotel, and 
being deciduous, and developing their leaves at different times, 
we were much interested in observing the rapidity with which 
they fully leaved out after their buds commenced to swell. One 
of these is very large, many of its huge branches are almost hori- 
zontal, and a spacious platform, with seats for the accommoda- 
tion of musicians and others, erected in the tree, is reached 
by a wide wooden railed stairway. These trees have large seed 
pods, which are packed with cotton of a soft silky texture. The 
long large roots, like huge anacondas, traverse the surface of the 
limestone rock, and fasten the trees down with innumerable liv- 
ing clamps and threads. As if aware of the fact that they have 
been brought by man from a land of comparative meteorlogical 
quiet and repose, to an island that lies in the favorite track of 
the hurricane, it does not, like the cypress of Florida, the pines 
of the North-west, or the elms of New England, proudly push its 
branches high up in the air, but with more modesty and prudence 
than elegance, abruptly stops the upward growth of its limbs. 



THfi CEIBA, 6b Stte COTtOK TREfi. §1 

and makes up in lateral spread what it lacks in elevation. The 
first mentioned silk cotton tree is believed by an apparently well 
informed Nassau writer, whom we have heretofore quoted, to 
have been brought from South Carolina, and, as he thinks, all 
the others upon the island have been derived from it. None of 
the latter that we saw, exhibit the wonderful formation of booths 
around and constituting a portion of the stem which characterizes 
and makes famous their '^ ancestral tree." 

" The negroes," says Charles Kingsley, " are shy of felling the 
ceiba. It is a magic tree, haunted by spirits. There are ' too 
much jumbles in him,'' the negro says, and of those vn'Iio dare cut 
him down, some one will die or come to harm within the year. " 
The one we have described looks indeed as if it was ''possessed," 
and it is easy for any one to imagine that viewless goblins sport 
among its roots and branches, and repose in the strange open 
chambers of its buttressed trunk. Mr. Grosse says that in Ja- 
maica the negroes believe that ''if a person throws a stone at the 
trunk [of a ceiba] he will be visited with sickness or other mis- 
fortune," and that " when they intend to cut one down they first 
pour rum at the roots as a propitiatory offering. " We have no 
doubt but that the favor of many embodied spirits has likewise 
been secured by a liberal use of good Jamaica rum, a little differ- 
ently administered. 

An old writer states that the silk cotton tree sometimes grows 
so large that fourteen thousand persons can assemble under its 
branches. 

There is a remarkable specimen of this singular tree at Trini- 
dad, which is thus described by Mr. Higgins, an English gentle- 
man, in his recently published "Notes by a Field Naturalist." 

" We came almost suddenly upon a true monarch of the woods, 
a silk cotton tree, {Bomhax Ceiba), said to be the largest tree but 
one on the island. When young, the trunk of the tree is round, 



§1 ' • ' t&LM OF StMMEfi. 

and beset with sturdy spines, capable, as we well know, of m- 
fiicting a severe wound. As it increases in age and size, the 
thorns fall off, and five or six broad buttress-shaped supports are 
developed, star-Avise, from the trunk, propping the tree in various 
directions against the enormous overhanging force which must 
bear upon it during tropical storms. * * * A rough estimate 
of the buttresses gave a circumference of eighty yards, or a 
diameter of about eighty feet. The compartments between the 
buttresses resembled small angular courts separated by high 
walls." He estimates that in these compartments, outside of 
the solid trunk, if the thin dividing buttress were removed, 
*' 2,400 people could stand round this ceiba," allowing each two 
square feet of standing room. 

In tropical and semi-tropical countries there is no tree or bush 
which so attracts the attention and interests the mind of the 
stranger from the North as the palm. It is one of God's most 
valuable gifts to man, and he has few physical wants that it can- 
not be made in whole or in part to supply, while it greatly min- 
isters by its strange and varied beauty to his esthetic taste. 
Botanists in classifying and arranging it divide it into five or 
more families, seventy to a hundred genera, and a thousand or 
more different species. In South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, 
we made the acquaintance of two of these, — the scrub palmetto, 
with its beautiful long, green, radiating leaves, from which palm 
leaf fans are made, and the palmetto tree, from whose tall^ 
straight, branchless stem or body, a rich cluster of similar leaves 
spread out in every direction at the top. 

The cocoanut palm has the same habit of growth, and thrives 
upon the island of New Providence. But its leaves are quite 
unlike those of the palmetto, being long and graceful, crowning 
the tall, straight, branchless stem, and drooping in beautiful 
curves over the thickly compacted fruit that nestles under the 
shadows of its evergreen wings. 



THE CABBAGE PALM. 93 

There are in and near Nassau a few African palms "which are 
much admired. They are tall, stately, branchless and truly royal 
trees, pre-eminently graceful and beautiful. The stem of this 
palm is very delicately moulded, of small diameter, enlarghig at 
or near the center, and gradually tapering each way, presenting 
a novel and pleasing outline. Its long, feather-shaped, curved 
and drooping leaves stretch out from its top on all sides, a chap- 
let, light, airy and so exceedingly attractive that we never ceased 
to look at it but with regret. While strongly resembling the 
cocoanut palm, this tree appeared to expend less of its vital ener- 
gies in the production of fruit, and more in the development of 
a higher type of beauty. The palms, esthetically considered, 
rank high among the trees of the forest, and in the perfection 
of grace and comeliness the African palm surpasses them all. 

In this connection, the cabbage palm is entitled to a passing 
notice. In some more favorable -localities it is said to attain a 
height of one hundred and twenty feet — nearly twice that of any 
we saw in the Bahamas. As if animated by a noble ambition, 
it wastes none of its energies upon '/side issues," but, pushing 
its branchless stem up boldly towards the heavens, it towers 
above its less successful rivals, and in the bright, warm sunlight 
of the uj)per air matures those long, drooping, graceful and 
feathery leaves which reveal, even to the casual and distant ob- 
server, the noble family to which it belongs. Young, tender 
and succulent leaves, at the base of those which are fully devel- 
oped, are formed and compacted mto a light-colored head, which 
is eaten as a salad. It is also cooked and prepared for the table 
like the cabbage — hence its name. 

Mr. Kingsley in his "At Last," gives the following descrip- 
tion of some cabbage palm trees which he saw in the West Indies. 
''We stopped at a manager's, with a palmiste {oreodoxa olera- 
cea) or cabbage palm on each side of the garden gate^a pair of 



94' ISLES OF SIJMMEE. 

columns which any prince would have longed for as ornaments 
for his lawn. It is the fashion here, and a good one it is^ to 
leave the palmistes, a few at least, when the land is cleared, or 
to j)lant them near the house, merely on account of their won- 
derful beauty. One palmiste was pointed out to me in a field 
near the road, which had been measured by its shadow at noon, 
and found to be one hundred and fifty-three feet in height. For 
more than a hundred feet the stem rose straight, smootli and 
gray. Then three or four spathes of flowers, four or five feet 
long each, jutted out and upward like; while from below them, 
as usual, one dead leaf, twenty feet long or more, dangled head- 
downwards in the breeze. Above them rose, as always, the 
green portion of the stem for some twenty feet; and then the 
flat crown of feathers, as dark as yew, spread out against the 
blue sky, looking small enough up there though forty feet at 
least in breadth. No wonder if the man who possessed such a 
glorious object dared not destroy it." 

In the low, wet, rocky hammocks the scrub or dwarf palmetto 
is abundant. With consummate art nature thus hides her blem- 
ishes with a countless number of palmetto fans, brightly and 
beautifully adorned with 'Hiving green," and supplemented with 
a luxuriant growth of flowering shrubs and climbing vines. Is 
it a cropping out and development of the divine in woman 
when she utilizes the fan to hide her beauties ? The palmetto 
yields a fibre, from which, when reduced to a pulp, the strong 
paper is made upon which the bills of the National banks are 
printed. An ingenious gentleman in Washington has lately in- 
vented a machine by which the tedious process of crushing the 
fibre by hand is avoided. 

Upon the premises of Mr. Charles Burnside we were shown an 
India rubber tree — one of a class which, thanks to American 
genius, has proved iu modern times to be of incalculable value. 



IKDIAK EUBBEE TEEE. SINGIJSTG TEEB. 95 

It has been utilized for man's benefit in so many ways that it has 
become almost a factor in the problem of civilized existence. As 
a representative tree, filled with juices of such great practical 
value to the whole civilized world, we approached it with a feel- 
ing of reverence and of gratitude. Like all true merit it was 
unostentatious and modest, and put on no airs. It flaunted no 
gaudy colors, Avhile looking down from its giddy elevation upon its 
less gifted neighbors. It was perha^DS as large as a medium sized 
maple, and its leaves were thick and leathery, resembling some- 
what those of the magnolia grandi flora, but of a darker shade, 
and less glossy and waxy. When Mr. Burnside's boys desire 
rubber balls they, by taj^ping the tree, quickly secure an abundance 
of sap, which hardens into rubber upon being exposed to the air 
and sunlight. Upon the banks of the Amazon, where it abounds, 
man is satisfied to simply live and propagate his lazy and indo- 
lent race, but the stimulus of the crisp and frozen airs of north- 
ern climes, thousands of miles away from the source of supply, 
causes a demand that essentially aids in the development of com- 
mercial enterprise — as Creative Wisdom intended it should. 

Several kinds of trees in Nassau mature their seeds like the 
bean, in pods. One of these has upon its branches in the winter 
season a large number of delicate light-colored, silvery, translu- 
cent pods, about eight inches long, which, being swayed and 
shaken by the wind, so fill the air with soft, soothing music, that 
the tree has been called the "singing tree." Some sour, cross, 
crusty and ungallant individual has had the temerity to name it 
"woman's tongue" — because it is never still! 

This tree is of a large size, and loses its leaves some time after 
it has flowered. Its blossoms have been described as particularly 
beautiful but odorless, resembling the finest floss silk. Before 
the tree leaves out, the blossoms hang, crescent shaped, from the 
top of long stems. We arrived too late for its flowers, but in 
season for its soft murmuring music. 



96- " ISLES OF SUMMEE. 

A northern person naturally looks for the tamarind upon tropi- 
cal vines, but it gro-ws in green pods, in great abundance, upon 
trees tall and widespread. Negroes frequently brought for sale 
to the court of the hotel a few of the green pods. They were 
purchased, not so much for use, but as objects of curiosity, 
although the tamarinds, when unpreserved, have a pleasant acid 
taste, and, with the aid of sugar, make a palatable drink. From 
the tamarinds of commerce the pods are removed, but the seeds 
are enveloped in a second covering, and are connected together 
with a fibrous string, as the reader has no doubt observed. 

The trees of the Bahamas which grow valuable timber are 
principally j)itch pine, Madeira mahogany, horse flesh mahogany, 
olive, cassava, mastic, fustic, cedar, button, white and black 
torch, satin and lignum vitse. 

Some Bahama trees, like the cinnamon, are valuable for their 
bark; others, like the logwood, for their dyes; while certain trees 
and many plants possess valuable medicinal qualities. 

While at the Bahamas, Ave were more than ever before im- 
pressed with that Divine Wisdom which joervades, as with a 
living spirit, the most common phenomena of nature. If man 
should first observe them in the maturity of his intellectual pow^ 
ers, he would be lost and overwhelmed in Avonder and astonish- 
ment. In the early dawn of his existence, before the reflecting 
and reasoning faculties are developed, he sees and accepts them 
as facts, and thus swallows unawares and without difficulty, 
whole caravans of camels. Having thrived upon such a diet,. 
and experienced no injury from his childish credulity, it seems 
foolish, in the later stages of life, to wrench and strain himself 
over the little troublesome gnats that float, like moats in sun- 
beams, in an atmosj^here mysterious and apparently supernatural. 

Living upon the same meagre diet of rock, Avater, air and sun- 
shine — and upon nothing else — it seems incredible that the small 



MYSTERIES PROFOUlN'D IK THE XATURAL, 97 

islands constituting the Bahama group should produce forms of 
vegetable life so widely dissimilar and infinitely varied. Nature 
has j)rovided but one table, with a bill of fare exceedingly short 
and simple, for all the wondrous display of fruits and flowers and 
forests which these islands exhibit — a table which must, to the 
rampant growers, look very discouraging. In the valleys and deep 
rich soils of the river bottoms in the United States, the observer 
naturally concludes that the vegetable commissary department 
is in quantity, quality and variety, on a scale corresponding with 
the magnificent floral world which it supports. But with a soil 
nearly as scant as that which is found upon the Belgian pave- 
ments of northern city streets, the miracle of producing much 
out of nothing is performed under our eyes. 

Eoots creep over the rocks and penetrate their crevices and 
crannies, searching and collecting materials for the green, pol- 
ished, waxen leaves — the pure, white, and exquisitely perfumed 
flowers — the golden balls and delicious pulp of the orange. 
Near them are other roots entwined among and persistently 
pushing into the little pockets of the same and similar rocks, 
and, by an inexplicable alchemy, obtaining from them nutriment 
for the growth of the tall stately stem, the large and graceful 
plume, the dry husks, the hard shells, the soft and palatable 
pulp, and the cool, sweet milk of the cocoanut palm. In like 
manner the sapodilla, with its russet apples of *' sugared honey" 
— the long, large leaved, branchless banana, feather-crested like 
the palm, with its large, pendent, purple fruit bud at the end 
of a long drooping stem, around which its gloved ambrosial 
fruit is thickly clustered — the lime, the lemon, the paAvpaw 
the pine apple, the guava, the. star apple, the bread fruit, the 
shaddock, the mango, the date, the almond, the sweet sap, the 
sour sap, the fig, plums of different kinds, and many other 
fruit-bearing and other trees, each, from lowest root to topmost 



rS ISLES OP SUMMEE. 

branch, having its own marked and widely dissimilar charac- 
teristics and qualities, fasten to the same common rock and 
eliminate and perfect their juices out of the same scanty and 
most unpromising materials. So also with the flowering shrubs 
and vines, — a world of itself, teeming with blooms in unending 
variety, radiant with every shade of color, and redolent with 
unnumbered perfumes of marvelous sweetness, — upon the outer 
margins of which we stand appalled, and lay down our descrip- 
tive pen, conscious that we cannot do it justice. 

How such wondrous growths are rendered possible upon islands 
so destitute of the rich fertilizing elements which are deemed 
necessary for the proper development of vegetable life at the 
North, it is difficult to understand or conceive, and we are com- 
j)elled to fall back upon that Divine fiat, whose faint murmurs, 
recorded in Genesis, come to us through the dim shadows of a 
past that shroud the mysterious beginnings of time. 



CHAPTER VL 

Fruits and Floicers of the Baliamas. Fruit in the Bills of Fare. Special 
Notice of the Orange, the Banana, the Pine Apple, the Sapodilla., the Cocoa- 
nut, the Hog Plum, the Shaddock, and the Forlidden Fniit. The Flowering 
Trees, Shrubs and Vines. 

"Pomona bore me to her citron groves, 
To where the lemon and the piercing lime, 
With the deep orange glowing through the green, 
Their varied glories blend." — TnoMPSOisr. 

' ' Gorgeous flowrets in the sunlight shining, 
Blossoms flaunting in the eye of day. 
Tremulous leaves, with soft and silver lining. 
Buds that open only to decay." 

Whether we adopt the theory that nature has stocked the 
earth with htscious fruits for man's benefit, or created man for the 
benefit of the fruit, and to secure its more perfect development 
from the sour, crabbed, Avild, unseeml}', primitive condition, in, 
which, when uncultivated, it exists, we must admit that fruit is 
an important, if not an essential factor, in the problem of the 
health and happiness of the human race. At all stages, and in 
all conditions of life, man craves and requires the ripened fruits 
in their season. One of the pleasures incident to visiting foreign 
lands arises from the opportunity which is thus afforded to jdIucIc 
and eat them in their freshness and maturity. In these days of 
rapid transit by sea and land, when the ends and distant corners 
of the earth are brought together, and space is almost annihilated. 



100 ' ISLES OF SUMMER. 

SO that oranges in our cities are nearly as cheap and plenty as 
apples, it is less necessary to visit the lands where they are indig- 
enous, or in which they have become naturalized, in order to 
enjoy their beauty of color, delicious fragrance, and exquisite 
flavor. But some fruits are too delicate and destitute of keeping 
qualities to admit of exportation to distant lands. "Others are 
taken from the trees before they are fully ripe, and never acquire 
on shipboard or in northern markets the perfection which only 
the tropical sun and air can impart. Besides, a tropical orchard 
loaded with fruit, some in all stages of development from flower 
to fruit, is a most charming sight, and alone com^Densates for the 
discomforts and fatigues of a long journey. Each member of 
the whole citrus family must be seen at its home to be fully ap- 
preciated. Boxes, barrels and baskets are a very jjoor substitute 
for the waxen and varnished leaves in which the golden balls 
nestle by thousands in the closely compacted tree tops. 

In Nassau, as well as in Florida, oranges and bananas and 
other tropical fruits have a prominent place, in their season, in 
the breakfast and dinner bills of fare. Every morning at the 
Victoria Hotel, with some few exceptions, as soon as we had 
taken our seats at the breakfast table, there was j^laced before 
us a large fruit dish filled Avith oranges and bananas, together 
with a bill of fare, a pencil and a sli|) of paper. After making 
out and giving to our neatly dressed, polite, and generally effi- 
cient table servant, our breakfast order, the fruit, regaled and con- 
soled us while our breakfast was being prepared. With the fruit 
dish before us, there Avas no limit to our indulgence except that 
which appetite and a wise discretion imposed. "We found the 
Bahama oranges of good size, and excellent flavor, a trifle sweeter 
than those of Florida, owing, ayc conclude, to the fact that they 
matured and ripened in a Avarmer climate. The bananas Avere 
of a superior quality. After the long fast of the night, the rich. 



6&1KCtES AiTD ■BAl<rA]!TAS. lOl 

Sub-acid juices of the former were particularly agreeable and grate- 
ful. Tliey soothed and gratified the neryes of taste^ took away 
the rough edges of apjjetite, and prepared the stomach for the 
heavier work it Avas soon to be called upon to perform. At din- 
ner the same thing was repeated, except that the order was re- 
versed, and the tempting dish of golden and yellow fruit came 
to stimulate the appetite after it had been subjected to the tempt- 
ing influences of along and varied bill of fare. It does not take 
a great while for these agreeable customs to become deeply and 
firmly rooted. Oranges to daily break our fast in the morning, 
and delightfully crown our afternoon meal, are felt to be a neces- 
sity. Without them the most elaborate feast fails to satisfy. 

New Providence relies upon Abaco for a very material part of 
the oranges which its market requires, and in the spring of 1879 
our landlord imported some, from Florida, and yet the island 
abounds with wild, waste land and idle people. 

The banana resembles the pear in this, that its quality is im- 
proved when it ripens dissevered. The long stem, thickly 
covered with fruit in various stages of development, hangs pen- 
dent, with a large purple terminal l)ud, which constantly ma- 
tures rings of fruit blossoms as it grows and gravitates towards 
the earth, with its leaves — narrow, very long, green and grace- 
fully drooping, — rising from a green sheath, is beautiful to 
behold, and its novelty never wore off, so that almost daily we 
had to stop and admire it. Our readers are all familiar with 
this fruit,, for it is in New York and in other northern cities 
what it is in and near the tropics; its habit of growth, aside 
from its large and beautiful terminal bud, is readily seen in the 
bunches so extensively exhibited wherever at the north southern 
fruits are offered for sale. 

The opinion we heard frequently expressed that the banana is 
unhealthy. Some assured us that it always distressed them when 



16^ istfis 69 summSS. 

they ate it. Others indulged in its use freely and "witli apparent 
impunity. We were at first very incredulous when stories reached 
us seriously reflecting uj^on it as a disguised enemy of the human 
stomach and constitution. We gave it our confidence, and also 
room very near to our hearts. We defended it to the best of 
our ability, with zeal if not with knowledge. We said it was an 
impeachment of Divine Providence to allege that its golden links 
of most delicious sweetness — so tempting to the four senses — 
sight, touch, taste and smell — were indigestible, health-destroy- 
ing, deceitful and bad. But we began finally, to have doubts, 
and at last thought we perceived after eating them, an unpleas- 
ant sensation right in the center of one of our seats of hapjDiness. 
We inquired concerning it of physicians, and found, as in other 
cases where experts testify, that they widely and materially dif- 
fered. Very reluctantly and with some misgivings, we are com- 
pelled to admit, that, being plucked Avhen quite green, for that 
or some other reason, it does not agree Avith all, and in many 
cases is injurious to health, yet the banana is said to be '' exten- 
sively used for food, and in many of the Pacific islands it is the 
staple on which the natives depend. In its immature condition, 
it contains much starch which on ripening changes into sugar. 
* * * From the unripe fruit, dried in the sun, a useful and nutri- 
tious flour is prepared." — [British Encyclopedia.] It would seem 
from the published analysis of the fruit, and of the flour made 
from it, that it must generally be a healthy article of diet for 
healthy people, and our advice, if asked, would be that once given 
to us by a skillful and experienced physician — '^ eat of it, if j'ou 
like, until you ascertain by your personal experience that to you 
it is hurtful." 

The banana is an herbaceous plant, and, after fruiting, its top 
dies, but it annually sprouts again from its roots. It attains a 
height of from fifteen to twenty feet, and its curved and droop- 
ing leaves have a width of from one to two feet. 



PINE APPLES. 103 

Among the tropical fruits that we were always pleased to give 
house room in the frozen north, was the pine apple, and now that 
we were upon one of its native rocks, or upon rocks where it had 
become thoroughly naturalized, we had a desire to see for our- 
selves the manner of its cultivation, and the processes and stages 
of its growth and development. Our curiosity was gratified in 
the following manner: 

In going to the caves in the Blue Hills we took the shore 
road, or the extension of Bay street to the west, and skirted for 
several miles Delaport Bay — a body of water which Silver, Long, 
and North Keys, with their connecting submerged reefs, shelter 
from the ocean, and which as you approach Nassau, after cross- 
ing its bar, stretches away to the right. Passing the caves nearest 
to the highway, we ascended a little hill, turned abruptly to the 
left, followed for a few rods a carriage road through the dense 
low woods, and, leaving our carriages near some small negro 
cabins, and following our very dusky guides, started on a foot- 
path for the more extensive caverns which hide in the hill from 
half to three-quarters of a mile further to the east. The trail 
led us through the center of a pine apple field which covered 
fifteen acres. It was termed an " orchard," but there was no- 
thing in its appearance suggestive of such a name. We found 
it humble, lowly and modest. It put on no airs, and evidently 
had no ambition to occupy a conspicuous position and make a 
show in the world. This West India " apple " does not grow in 
clusters like the cocoanut, nor uj)on high, wide brandling trees 
like its northern namesake — but singly upon plants which attain 
an average height of about one and a-half feet. The lowly plant 
has long narrow leaves or fronds, hard, thick, coarse, bayonet- 
shaped, and with sharp serreted edges. A single fruit stem 
pushes up from the center of the root, blossoms, and in about 
eighteen months from the time of planting matures a single 



104 ISLES 6F summer. 

apple. One plant, producing one apple at a time, will continue 
to yield an annual crop for three or four years. There are three 
varieties; the Sugar Loaf, which is juicy, of excellent iiavor, 
and excels the others in keeping qualities ; the Cuba, which is 
of larger size, firmer texture, and less sweet than the sugar loaf 
and commands a higher price ; the J3lrcVs-eye, the cultiyation 
of which has been pretty much abandoned because of the de- 
struction of the crop by rats and land-crabs. Gov. Eawson states 
that of a forty acre field of the sugar loaf variety, the rats de- 
stroyed 6000 dozen, or one-third of an annual croj). Land- 
crabs, he says, 'Hike locusts elsewhere, march straight through 
a field and consume all the fruit in their course." 

It is raised from slips — 2000 dozen of the sugar loaf, and 1600 
dozen of the Cuba to an acre. In the "orchard "we crossed, 
the cocoanut had been planted among the pines so as to insure 
a cocoanut grove when the pines ceased bearing. The rocky sur- 
face was covered and concealed by the pines, and in ''clearing" 
the plantation, (they evidently could not if they would hoe it), 
it is said " the laborers are obliged to wear canvas leggings and 
gauntlets to protect them from the spines of the leaves." Gov. 
Eawson says, the fields are "or ought to be cleaned six times in 
the year." He states also that the average weight of the sugar 
loaf is three pounds, that it yields one-third of the quantity 
planted, and lasts five years ; that the Cuba has an average 
weight of three and a-half pounds, yields one-half of the quan- 
tity planted, lasts only three years, and will thrive upon soil 
considered unsuited for the other varieties ; also that the Cuba 
is preferred in the United States, and that the sugar loaf, by 
reason of its superior keeping qualities, is preferred for the 
English market ; that it is uncertain whether the pine apple 
is a native of the Bahama Islands, or has been introduced from 
the Windward Islands or Cuba ; that tlie value of 229,226 dozen 



5P1KE APPLES. SAPODILLAS. 105 

exported in 1864 was £21,299 — which makes tliem average about 
four cents a piece; that in sliipping the pine to the United 
States it is stripped of every thing but its head, while tlie whole 
plant was formerly sent to England, the leaves and shoots being 
wrapped round the fruit to keep it fresh, but that since 1858 
only the shoots are left on the stalks ; that the fruit is arranged 
in tiers, great attention being paid to ventilation; the hatches are 
left open during the voyage ; serious losses often occur on ship- 
board arising from exceptionally bad weather and long voyages, 
as Avell as from other causes. The shoots are used for new plan- 
tations, and as these are sent with the apples to England the 
price is for that reason increased. There are two annual cut- 
tings: the Cuba is cut early in May and late in June, and the 
sugar loaf from the 1st to the 20th of June, and in July and 
August. As in 1879 and also in 1880 we left the Bahamas in 
April, much to our regret we were unable to test the quality 
of pine apples fully ripened in the field. 

The sapodilla is very abundant and cheap in Nassau. The 
tree is large and is a good bearer. The fruit is of a uniform dull 
dark brown color, and almost unpromising in its outward ap- 
pearance as a cocoanut. Its skin is very thin, its flesh yellow, 
soft and sweet, its shape oval, and its diameter from two to tliree 
inches, A taste for it has to be acquired, so that while it is dis- 
carded by the many, the few strangers who have learned to love 
it, esteem it very highly. It is conceded to be a very healthy 
fruit. We saw but two varieties. Some specimens of the fruit 
in size, flavor, and richness of the coloring of the flesh, were very 
much superior to those offered ordinarily for sale. 

The cocoanut is cultivated in the Bahamas, and thrives in some 
parts of New Providence. Gov. Eawson includes it in a table 
containing the names of twenty-three varieties of fruit which 
were growing upon the Bahamas in 1864, and which he claimed 



106 ISLES OF SUMMES. 

were indigenous. Others, however, think that it is an exotic. 
Upon general principles we should, in the absence of positive 
testimony to the contrary, incline to the Governor's oi^inion. 

It flourishes best in the vicinity of salt water, and is found up- 
on most of the inhabited islands all over the ocean world within 
and near the tropics. It is, perhaps, G-od's most valuable gift to 
the people inhabiting not only almost innumerable islands, but 
large portions of the main land. Every part of it ministers very 
materially to man's wants. The milk and meat of its fruit con- 
stitute a considerable part of the food of the people who bask in 
its shade or live where it grows. In the island of Ceylon (it is 
credibly stated) tlie wealth of men is estimated by the number of 
cocoanat trees which they own. 

This one fruit of itself furnishes full and ample evidence, to 
an observing and thoughtful mind, of the existence and good- 
ness of God. Having made it, and in so many ways fitted it to 
supply the jorime necessaries of human life in those parts of the 
world where frosts are unknown. He has provided in amost won- 
■ derful way for its preservation and propagation. Wrapped up 
in a shell so hard and impervious that it is carried a thousand 
miles and more for the purpose of holding the cool water brought 
to the earth's surface in " the old oaken bucket that hangs in the 
well," we find the life-germ from which it is developed. Around 
that shell are placed and compacted innumerable threads which 
require, when dry, the aid of an axe to detach them from the 
treasure they so persistently guard. Around these wrappings 
there is another hard vegetable shield, wisely designed and curi- 
ously made, and the whole is so wonderfully contrived and ad- 
justed that it will float safely for months upon the ocean in calm 
or storm, secure from molestation by reason of its outward des- 
titution of comeliness, flavor and fragrance, from any of the 
hungry and voracious monsters of the deep, until, at last, some 



ClOC!OA2fUTS. THE HOG PLUM. THE SHADDOCK. lOt 

huge, angry mountain wave hurls it, as if in anger, a seemingly 
useless thing, high upon the land, where, when the fingers of 
decay have sufficiently loosened the strings and hard enveloises 
which have so securely confined and guarded it, the enclosed 
life-germ sends down its little rootlets into the congenial soil, a 
vigorous stem pushes up into the air and the sunshine, as if, like 
a little Columbus, to learn what sort of a new world it has finally 
landed upon after its long sea voyage. From this little and un- 
promising beginning, on many an ocean isle, the invaluable and 
graceful cocoanut palm has multiplied and extended, and made 
it possible for man to live and flourish in comparative idleness, 
with few substantial wants that the cocoanut cannot abundantly 
supply. 

Upon Mr. Charles Burnside's grounds we saw a ^' hog plumb " 
tree with a plentiful supply ot small, green fruit in clusters upon 
the branches — but not a leaf in sight. The juices are not in this 
instance perfected in the leaves for the groAvth of the fruit. 

The shaddock was there with its large glossy leaves, and per- 
fumed the air with its white blossoms. The misletoe had estab- 
lished itself upon its branches, and, as if lineally descended from 
the old Nassau pirates, flourished upon the rich sap it had done 
nothing to eliminate. Both the shaddock and the grape fruit 
belong with the orange, lime and lemon, to the citrus family. 
The former is sometimes over two feet, and the grape fruit over 
one foot in circumference. Almond trees, large and beautiful, 
Avere just leafing out. Mr. Burnside showed us also, the ^' For- 
bidden Fruit " tree, and we would willingly have followed the 
example of Adam and Eve, and tested the quality of its sweet 
fruit, if we had had an opportunity to do so, even at the risk of 
being forever banished from the pleasant fruit garden where it 
was growing. 

Gov, Eawsou states in his report, that ''The soil and climate 



10§ ISLES OP SUMMER. 

of the Bahamas are admirably adapted for all tropical and semi- 
tropical fruits." His table of those wliich are indigenous em- 
braces the following: the sapodilla, cashew, pine apple, sweet- 
sapj sour-sap, papaw, sour orange, lemon, star-apple, cocoa plum, 
cocoa nut, seaside grape, water melon, mamee, plantain, banana, 
love-in-a-mist, guava, Spanish hog plum, hog plum, scarlet hog 
plum, tamarind, and wild grape. 

' ' The luscious fruits, which of their own accord 
The willing ground, and laden trees afford." 

The following, he states, have been introduced at different 
times: the Jamaica (custard) apple, ground nut, broad fruit, 
ackee, citron, orange {citrus aurautium), mandarin orange {cit- 
rus decumana), two species of shaddock, lime, rose apple, fig, 
mangoe, avocado pear, pomegranate, date, balsam apple, mul- 
berry, broad-leafed almond, grape and juju])e. 

In Nassau, as elsewhere, every month has its own sjDecial and 
peculiar floral display, although many flowers continue from 
month to month to unfold their blossoms. Some varieties of 
indigenous flowers are always to be found in the wild and tangled 
woods. The ladies, returning from their rides near the close of 
day, generally bring with them the curious growths of tree, and 
shrub, and vine, which nature has spontaneously produced and 
scattered with lavish profusion on every hand. The flowers are 
massed in trees and ambushed in thickets. Here a floAvoring 
vine festoons a wayside tree with garlands of beauty, and reaches 
out for a caress as the stranger rides by; Avhile there, from their 
little many-hued censers, flowers of more rank and stately growth 
shed upon him their sweet tributary incense. One soon is com- 
pelled to adopt as his own, the enthusiastic sentiment of the 
charmed poet who sings : 



tlTDIGENOUS FLOWERS. 109 

* ' Were I, O God, in churchless lands remaining, 
Far from all voice of teachers or divines, 
My soul would find in flowers of thy ordaining, 
Priests, sermons, shrines." 

The following extracts from "Letters from the Bahama 
Islands/' written by an American lady in 1823-4, give an account 
of some of the more prominent flowers to be seen in Nassau and 
its suburbs. 

" The indigenous plants and flowers, and flowering shrubs are 
abundant and beautiful; and, it is said, there are five thousand 
varieties. I am very fond of the mignonette tree; it bears pale 
yellow and green flowers, and has the most powerful and delicious 
fragrance. The acacia is very different from that of the same 
name with us; the flower is a little, round, yellow ball, about 
the size of a chestnut, looks like a tuft of fringe, and is filled 
with a yellow powder and has a sweet j^erfume. The blossom of 
the mahogany tree is beautiful, and so is the yellow and crimson 
flower fence or Barbadoe's pride. The coral tree is very curious; 
the flower looks like a bunch of red, cut coral, and grows at the 
top of the branch distinct from any leaves; the stem, which is 
five or six inches long, stands perfectly erect, and, though beau- 
tiful, it is ungraceful. The coral vine bears a blossom of the 
same color and shape, and runs in wild profusion over all the 
stone walls and hedges, but has no odor. Myrtles, jessamines, 
tuberoses, and roses, the amaryllis of every species, the convolvu- 
lus, the sensitive plant, and Arabian jasmine, are seen in every 
direction, and grow wild among the rocks. Groves of the olean- 
der are very common, and, prized as they are with you, are 
thought almost vulgar here, as well as the beautiful south-sea 
rose. The mutable rose is a native of this climate; the bignonia 
bears a yellow trumpet flower; the blue passion flower, which 

10 



110 iSLES OF SUMMEK. 

hides its head among clusters of dark green leaves, is one of my 
favorite flowers. * * * The yellow jessamine, and a variety 
of flowering myrtles, fill the air with their perpetual fragrance. 
* * * I have seen the sweet briar and the multiflora rose in 
blossom, growing very luxuriantly." 

" The bayonet plant is properly named for its leaves are thick 
and sharp like those of the aloes, and point upwards like those 
of the pine apple ; it grows about thirty feet high, and forms an 
impenetrable hedge. From the center of the leaves, directly on 
the top, bursts a stem about tAvo feet long which is thickly cov- 
ered with dazzling white flowers, the size and shape of a crown 
imperial ; the inside of the calyx is of a pale yellow, and hun- 
dreds of these little bells hanging downwards, cover the stem, 
and the whole is two or three feet in circumference. It has the 
most powerful and opjoressive fragrance. The flower of the 
cocoanut is very beautiful. There is no end to the variety of 
pretty flowering vines and shrubs which spread forth their rain- 
bow colored flowers to charm the eye, and mingle their sj^icy 
odors with the soft winds to delight the senses. The coffee and 
cotton trees are not very numerous, but the air is eternally 
filled with the fragrance of the orange, lemon and mahogany 
blossoms. There is a wonderful variety of medicinal plants here, 
and almost every leaf affords a panacea for some disease. '' 

Oleanders are very common and groAV to a large size. They 
adorn many homesteads, but lose something of their value by 
reason of their great abundance. They continued in bloom dur- 
ing all the time we remained in Nassau; the blossoms of some 
were white, others pink, and others a dark red color. A prickly 
pear species of cactus of a vigorous, large, rank growth, is also 
found upon the island, and is in many localities very abundant. 
A large, exquisitely beautiful, plume-like and delicate blossom, 
called the shell plant, was frequently offered for sale in the court 



PLOWERS. Ill 

of tlie hotel, and was greatly admired. Colored girls daily fre- 
quented the court well supplied with beautiful boquets of flowers 
of various kinds, and particularly of roses, to give to their friends 
whose good will they wished to cultivate, or to exchange for the 
money of the strangers. There is also to be seen a beautiful 
running vine which blooms about Christmas time, and for that 
reason is called the Christmas flower. It is not a favorite with 
the agriculturists of Nassau because of its rank and persistent 
growth. 

Occupying conspicuous places in the flower borders in front of 
the hotel were large clusters of rank growing lillies, whose bells, 
suspended upon long stems, with silent eloquence spoke to the 
mind and rang out peals of perfume upon the surrounding air. 
They also grow wild upon the island. We were surprised to learn 
that the healing balm of which squills are composed is obtained 
from the bulbous roots of this species of lilly. The little negroes 
are accustomed to steal these and other flowers belonging to the 
hotel before they have time to fully mature, and with as inno- 
cent a look as they can command, offer them at the court of the 
hotel for sale. But while f ally appreciating the delicious per- 
fumes that gave such a charm to the soothing air, and the end- 
less variety in form, habit of growth and color of the flowers 
we could not at times refrain from unfavorably contrasting the 
animal life of the Bahamas, with their flora, and to harbor the 
thought which one of Shenstone's stanzas, slightly altered, ex- 
presses : 

"Boast, favored islands, boast thy flowery stores, 
Thy thousand hues by chemic suns refined , 
'Tis net the dress or mien the soul adores, 
But the rich beauties of the immortal mind." 

The floral display upon the islands and in Florida was less 



lis tSLES OF SUMMER. 

abundant and brilliant than usual in the early part of the year 
1879, by reason of the fact that the season was exceptionally 
dry. 



s 




CHAPTER VII. 

The Soothing Languid Air and its Consequences. Ambition Dies. The 
Bahamas not Included in the Primal Curse. The Island of Indolence. 
Soothed Sharks. Lazy Air and Blood Putting Insect Plagues to Sleejy. 
Mice and Men alike Affected. A Large Fish Story. Sea Turtles Resigned to 
their Fate. Negroes Contented and Happy. Good Order in Nassau. How 
a Millenium can be Secured. Agricultural and Maivufacturing Industry) not 
Booted in the Bocks. Sugar Making. Small Islands Unfavorable to Intellect- 
ual Development. 

"Not poppy, nor mandragora, 
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world 
Shall ever medicine thee to such sweet sleep." — Shakespeaek. 

The Bahama air is very soothing, and soon makes itself felt 
upon nerves that are sensitive, disordered or unstrung. It en- 
ervates like an opiate, and the newly arrived stranger soon suc- 
cumbs to its influence. It is difficult to do anything in the 
warm and languid air, when not overcome by sleep, but muse 
and dream. It is very entertaining to observe the new comers 
from the states when a passenger steamer arrives. They step so 
quick, and talk so fast, and inquire so earnestly, and commence 
so soon to crowd an immense amount of walking, riding and 
sailing into a single day, economising time, and drawing upon 
their capital of latent strength and vitality as though in vigor 
and endurance they were millionaires. The amount of sight- 
seeing they accomplish in two or tliree days is astonishing. But 
in less than a week the warm air takes all the frost out of them, 
and wilted, languid and limpsy, they loll, and lounge, and loaf 

113 



114 isLM 6t mmmn, 

in the shade as though '*to the manor born." It requires the 
stimuhis of a steamer nearly ready to return to the States, to 
energize one sufficiently to write a letter home. It is a luxury to 
breathe and feel the soft air, but it inclines to repose; it puts us 
in a state or condition of rest. Bold enterprise and tireless energy 
are quickened into life by cold winds from the snow-fields. 

" There's iron in our northern winds, 
Our pines are trees of healing." 

Not only is ambition not indigenous in the Bahamas, but, 
like many other exotics, it has but a sickly and short-lived exist- 
ence when introduced from abroad. The primal curse that 
doomed man to a life of labor, does not seem to have extended 
to these isles of unending summer. In fact, it is only in such a 
climate as these islands possess that labor is a curse and not a 
blessing. Indolently reposing in the shade of a tropical orchard, 
fanned by the sea-god's invisible wings that seem ever in motion, 
the inhabitants of these favored islands have no occasion to work 
(as we of the north understand that word) in order to supply 
their simple wants. It is therefore apparent that the original 
Garden of Eden must have been less favorably situated for lazy 
people than this part of her majesty's possessions. 

New Providence has been called by one of its enthusiastic ad- 
mirers, in the pages of Scribner, **The Isle of June." It may 
with equal propriety be named The Isle of Indolence. At all 
times, in sunlight and starlight, it seemed as if unseen spirits 

"Spread forth their downy pinions, scattering sleep 
Upon the drooping eye-lids of the air." 

Man there soon passes into a semi-torpid state, and while the 
wear and waste incident to an active life is avoided, the recuper- 



fefiAfeK^ CHtORCPoHMfeB hY CLlMAi'K. llS 

aiing powers are, as in sleep, quietly at work. Entering the 
dining room of the Victoria Hotel for our breakfast soon after 
eight o'cloclv: one morning, and finding as usual at that early 
hour nearly a hundred seats at the tables unoccupied, we said to 
the head waiter, " There are a good many lazy persons in this 
hotel." ''Yes," he replied; "it's the place to be lazy — that's 
what peojDle are here for." It is only occasionally that the ama- 
teur fishermen have life and vim enough even to fish, being, like 
the author, satisfied to simply sail over the beautiful Avaters. 
Some persons explained to us, ui^on their return from a fishing 
excursion, that the fish they caught were not ''gamy," and made 
none of those heroic straggles for freedom Avhich give spirit and 
zest to piscatory sports in northern waters. The fish which they 
caught were large, fat and beautifully colored. Sharks abound, 
and come near enough to the surface to be soothed and quieted 
by the Bahama air. As the tempting bait floats near the top of 
the water about three rods from the boat, it is very interesting 
to watch, in the clear water, the movements of the sharks as they 
reconnoiter and cautiously approach the savory but deceitful 
prize. The larger ones manifest the prudence so characteristic 
of age, while those smaller and younger, as our sable yachtman 
forcibly expressed it, "jess like de children what den no' no bet- 
ter," impetuously rush forward and are caught, towed to the 
boat and shot for their temerity. One of the cajDtured was, with- 
out any court-martial trial, shot in the head, and, with his jaws 
extended to their utmost capacity, exhibited in the court of the 
hotel. It was seven and one-half feet long, and had a capacious, 
well-armed and ugly looking mouth — extremely repulsive to all 
except those who have a romantic desire to take part in the old 
drama of "Jonah and the Whale." It should be said to the 
credit of the iN'assau sharks, that while the black divers iu the 
clear and transparent waters of the Bahamas must look to them 



116 ISLES Of SUMMEfi. 

exceedingly attractive, especially when hungry, we heard of only 
a single instance in which any one of these usually yoracious 
monsters has dined upon a negro, and the report in that case is 
not yery well authenticated. 

While in Florida, a gentleman haying a plantation upon the 
St. John's, mentioned to us that he could not giye credit to all 
the claims that had been made and published concerning the 
Bahamas, and U23on being pressed to state particularly what 
claims he considered unfounded, he replied — " "Well, take for 
instance the Bahama sharks; it is affirmed that they never injure 
people. Now I can't believe that story. Why, last summer, at 
the mouth of the St. John's, Mr. — — and his family left their 
cottage to bathe in the river. His wife entered the water first, 
and while she was wading out, in the presence of her husband 
and children, she uttered one loud scream of pain and terror and 
disappeared. Her body was afterwards recovered, minus one 
arm. A shark had seized her by the arm, drawn her under 
water, and bitten her arm off. I do not believe that over in 
Nassau where sharks are plenty, they are so different from ours. " 

It is proverbial that every story has more than one side — and 
we found it so in this case. Upon inquiry, we ascertained from 
some friends of ours who own a cottage at the mouth of the St. 
John's, that the lady in question, in company with another lady, 
went out upon a sand bar, and remained there about an hour; 
that in the mean time the tide rose, increased the depth of the 
water, and the force of its current between them and the shore; 
that in attempting to return, one lady got into a hole beyond 
her depth; that her companion, in endeavoring to rescue her, 
also got into deep water; that one was in consequence drowned, 
while the other floated away quite a long distance, upon the sur- 
face of the water, but was rescued at last unharmed, by a gentle- 
man who went in a boat to her relief, passing on his way through 



SOOTHIIfrG EFFECTS OF CLIMATE. 117 

water infested with sharks, a dozen or more of them being in 
sight. 

A gentleman wlio lias spent considerable time in the West 
Indies, assured us that sharks are cautious if not cowardly, and 
that they will never :Dite a man if he splashes the water. Per- 
haps, before trusting too much even to the warm water sharks, 
it will be prudent to first make sure that their hunger has been 
satisfied. When looking for his breakfast or his dinner, in the 
absence of fish, now and then a shark may make a bold dash for 
human flesh. The very great clearness of the Bahama waters 
may operate in favor of safety, and the fish that they crave for 
food may be less abundant in the colder water of the Florida 
Gulf. If the Bahama sharks are very dangerous, it is singular 
that so few facts are reported which indicate it, and that the 
divers continue to be so numerous and so bold. 

In our sleeping room at Nassau, it was sometimes found nec- 
essary to use the mosquito bars with which our bed was provided. 
We found this insect unlike the little nocturnal musicians so 
common at the north. When hunted upon the wall in the morn- 
ing, a IN'assau mosquito appears strangely indifferent. Often 
when first struck at and not hit, it does not seem at all disturbed 
and remains in the same place. Then when aroused sufficiently 
to fly from the threatened danger, it makes a very short journey 
to another resting place not far from the first, and looks around 
with a calm quiet expression of supremo indifference. A lady 
Justly remarked — "you don't see them sitting 'round that Avay 
at home, but here they breathe a laz}^ atmosphere and live on 
lazy blood." 

Little facts and circumstances evidence great truths. The 
influence of climate may be as well shown by a mouse as by a 
man or a mammoth. Therefore, it is, that we give another little 
incident that came under our observation. 



118 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

Witli more curiosity than discretion, a mouse one day came 
out of its hole to look at some of the newly arrived guests of the 
Victoria Hotel. Upon being pursued, it took refuge under a 
mat at the foot of the grand stair-way. A little girl turned up 
the end of the mat, and we then expected to see a lively display 
of the quickness and agility of the pursuer and pursued. But, 
to our astonishment, the mouse, with quiet resignation, remained 
perfectly passive, and made no noise, while the little girl seized 
it by the tail with her fingers, and suspended it, head downwards, 
in the soft and soothing air. Such passive resignation in a cold 
climate would have been impossible. 

In further evidence of astonishing climatic results, we copy 
the following seemingly incredible fish story from a Avell written 
article upon Nassau by Epes Sargent, the proprietor of the Sar- 
gent House in that city. Speaking of fish, he says : 

" The jew-fish supplies the place of our Northern halibut. It 
is cut into steaks and fried in a similar manner. It is the largest 
edible fish we have, often weighing six hundred pounds. At 
certain seasons this fish lies dormant at the bottom, and refuses 
to take the hook. Under these circumstances the fishermen dive 
down and place the hook in his mouth! This may appear to you 
to be a very heavy fish story, but it is nevertheless true, as can 
be vouched for by many here."' 

Mr. Sargent, who thus affirms the truth of this story, is a 
highly respectable citizen of Nassau, but it will be noticed, he 
does not claim that his testimony is founded upon his personal 
observation. If tlie fish has regular hibernating periods, its torpid- 
ity at such times may not be chargeable to the climate. It seems 
that this singular mode of capturing large fish is not Avithout its 
perils, for Mr. Sargent adds, that ''at Long Cay a man had his 
hand taken off Avhile performing this feat.'" 

Our landlord kept his hotel well supplied Avith green sea turtle. 



SEA TUETLES RESIGNED. NEGROES HAPPY. 119 

One t^^^tle we particularly examined. It had then recently 
been taken from the water, weighed fifty-seven pounds, was alive 
and fat, and was soon, in the form of soups and steaks, to grace 
the tables of the dining-room. This huge reptile, (though quite 
an infant compared with some of the same species), while he 
must have had some vague suspicions of the cruel fate in store 
for him, and was turned over upon his back so that he could not 
crawl away, and rudely punched to wake him up and to see if he 
was fat, seemed perfectly contented and hajjpy. 

A large number of servants of both sexes were employed in and 
about the Victoria Hotel, yet there was no jarring, scolding, com- 
plaining or quarreling. Some were grave, but none appeared sad 
or discontented. Light hearted and good natured, polite and re- 
spectful, attentive and faithful, they performed the tasks assigned 
them in a very unexceptional manner. Petulant and unreason- 
able complaints did not disturb their equanimity or elicit tart 
replies. When a number were assembled to perform some labor 
in common, they lightened their tasks by finely singing with 
rich musical voices sacred songs. They were never boisterous, 
and ever exhibited a respectful deference and a politeness which 
was the more agreeable because unstudied and natural. 

We seldom heard in any of the suburbs of Nassau, teeming as 
they do with colored people, a harsh or profane word ; we never 
there witnessed a fight, nor do we remember to have heard a 
child cry. When sailing on one occasion, we heard some loud 
unpleasant talk between two white men, near a public dock, 
each on board and apparently in command of a vessel. Finally 
one said to the other — " Now look'er here ! If you get me mad 
I'm going to wrestle, or run, or do something P' This old salt 
had evidently breathed the air of the Bahamas for some time. 

It seemed to us while in Nassau that if we had any enemies 
any where in the wide world that it was a good time to heartily 



120 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

forgive tliem while we were not only too lazy to get mad, but too 
languid to keep fast hold of any but the most pleasant and sen- 
suous emotions, and before we returned to a climate where one's 
nerves are all so '^ strung upon wires " that they vibrate painfully 
when the atmosphere is in th3 least disturbed by untoward events. 
ISTor did we feel like the very sick Dutchman who promised if 
he died to forgive his enemy, but to give him a good licking if 
he recovered. We would also suggest to those restless spirits 
that cannot wait for the coming of the millenium in the due 
course of time, and Avho are anxious to have the lion and the 
lamb, without any further delay, lie down together in peace, the 
propriety of trying the efficacy of physical forces, indejjendent 
of or in conjunction Avith moral ones, and that they now in- 
augurate a great migratory movement, by which the whole 
human family shall be transported to the Bahamas, or to other 
similar islands, where men lack the life and energy to commit 
crime, or to accumulate fortunes, or to engage in great enter- 
prises, and every passion (save one) is as torpid and seemingly 
dead as though it never had a lodgment in the human heart. 
We suspect that when the millenium is witnessed in the northern 
states, great climatic changes will have first taken place. 
■ As might be expected Nassau is a very quiet and orderly city. 
Strangers are much impressed by the absence of scenes of vio- 
lence, drunken brawls and profane, abusive and irritating lan- 
guage in the public streets and places of popular resort. We 
were told that more persons are arrested for improperly wagging 
their " unbridled tongues," than for more serious offenses. The 
''keeping of the peace " is not, however, due to the climate alone. 
The criminal code, the SAvift and sure administration of justice 
by the courts, the police department Avitli its efficient and fine 
looking black patrolmen — all are material factors in accomplish- 
ing so desirable a result. Convicts are made to labor upon the 



GOOD OKDBE, IST NASSAU, 121 

streets, and the chain gangs, in their white prison uniforms, 
while at work in the hot sun, exert a moral influence which is 
widely and deeply felt. A future punishment by hard work and 
not by fire is what makes an impression on the indolent mind. 
Nor should the peaceful and conservative operation of a very 
efficient Church — represented by a goodly variety of difEerent 
sectarian organizations, from the humble Methodists with their 
untiring zeal and spiritual sledge-hammers, up, through the more 
jjretentious cathedral, to the loftiest kind of high church, with 
its choir of colored urchins in holy vestments within the walls of 
" Saint Agnes," in G-rantstown, back of Nassau, be omitted. 
The extent of its salutary influence may be fairly inferred by the 
manner in which Sunday is here kept. The first day of the week 
is marked by solemn stillness, entire absence from all secular 
employments, a display of neat and tasty costumes, and by a 
general attendance upon the devotional services of the churches, 
as strongly as it is in any of the country towns of New England. 
In this respect the neighboring island of Cuba, with its Sunday 
theatres and bull fights in its chief city of Havana, furnishes a 
most striking contrast, and leads the seeker after the best practi- 
cal ecclesiastical system to ask, whether English Protestantism 
or Spanish Catholicism furnishes the most desirable religious 
foundation for a prosperous and well ordered community. 

It is apparent that the Eoyal Victoria Hotel is an active agent 
in demoralizing the colored boys who frequent its court. Nov- 
elty speedily degenerates into nuisance. To them the crowds of 
winter visitors are like the sugar hogsheads to northern summer 
flies. The ''rich Northerners" constitute a great living tide, 
with deep, broad currents of unfailing wealth, and all are most 
eager to catch some of the drops of the golden spray. Not all 
of them who have a love of money are endowed with the gift of 
song, and as the choirs are not selected, and most of the black 

11 



122 ISLES OF SUMMBB. 

urchins believe that the louder they scream the better they sing, 
the extent of the disturbance and annoyance may be in some 
small degree comprehended. This, together with an inyeterate 
habit of begging at all times and on all occasions for money — a 
vicious practice constantly encouraged and fostered by the well- 
meant liberality of the guests — occasionally causes some of the old 
habitues of the hotel, when the salutary influence of the lash is 
not brought into requisition, to hire them to go aAvay. 

Although you have only to tickle the Bahama rocks with a 
crowbar to make them smile with tropical and semi-tropical har- 
vests, yet agriculture languishes and maintains but a sickly strug- 
gle for life, the wildness of untamed nature being only here and 
there to a very limited extent disturbed. In and near Nassau 
many places, once made beautiful by enforced slave labor, ''now 
look sadly neglected. A thick growth of bushes and small trees 
cover the rocky fields, and many dwellings, once the happy homes 
of men who owned their workmen, have a deserted, tumble-down 
look not at all in keeping with their natural attractions. Some 
sugar cane is raised, and several small sugar mills are in opera- 
tion. The cane is crushed by horse power between three small 
cylinders, connected together at the top by projecting cogs, so 
that while one cylinder is turned by a horse traveling in a circle 
at the end of a long connecting arm, -(as in the old-fashion 
cider mill), the other cylinders are made to revolve. They are 
so adjusted that the third cog gives the cane a tighter squeeze 
than the first two. One of the receiving cylinders has either 
vertical grooves or spaces which help to maintain and keep a hold 
upon the cane, constantly fed to the machine by a negro seated 
on the ground by its side. While in operation, a steady stream 
of saccharine cane-juice, having a strong corn-stalk taste, runs 
into a large tub, from which it is taken in pails to the sugar 
house, where it is boiled in large kettles; the cane from which 



JfO TACTOEIES — THE MECHANIC ARTS. 133 

the juice has been extracted is used for fuel in making the sugar, 
and is fed to stock. Some lime is put into the juice when it is 
boiled. Six men were employed in the mill we visited, who 
worked from 5 o'clock in the morning until sundown. Each 
horse grinds twice a day, two hours at a time — making four 
hours per day for each horse. The mill yields only one and a-half 
barrels of sugar per day. It was made in Cincinnati, Ohio. One 
of the other three mills on this island makes four barrels of sugar 
per day. It is only quite recently, we believe, that sugar has 
been made upon the island of New Providence. Commencing 
in December, sugar-making continues four months. The sugar 
seems of very fair quality. 

A marine railway for the repair of vessels is maintained ujoon 
Hog Island, but we searched in vain for a single factory upon 
any of the Bahamas, bearing the faintest resemblance to the 
thousands that are found in every northern state. A very fcAV 
little shops, like those often seen in small American villages, 
where some of the simplest of the mechanic arts are practiced, 
exist. But there is very little demand for skilled labor. We 
have a photograph of a Nassau joiner shop. It is very roomy, 
being located out-doors. It is well ventilated, having for its 
ceiling the blue vault of heaven. It is stable, being founded 
upon a rock. It is amply furnished and manned for the succes- 
ful prosecution of a limited business, as it has a single joiner's 
bench and jack plane, which are in the sole possession and use 
of one of the Queen's colored subjects. A negro, mounted upon 
a rather unprepossessing looking mule, is the nearest approach 
which the Bahamas have yet made towards establishing either a 
steam or horse railroad. Telegraphs and telephones are of course 
unknown. Nassau has been described to be "a city Avithout 
chimneys," though a few have been built for culinary purposes. 

A lady of our party having broken either the main-spring or 



124 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 

chain of her watch, it was placed in the hands of a man who 
held himself out to the world in Nassau as competent to repair 
it. He kept it some four or five weeks, and until the oAvner was 
on the point of leaving the island, and charged her a good price 
for his worse than useless services. She found her watch in a 
worse condition than she believed it would have been if she had 
sent it to a northern blacksmith o± average mechanical ingenuity 
and intelligence. 

While Prof. Dana concedes that a coral island is a good tem- 
porary sanitarium when well supplied with foreign stores, ''in- 
cluding a good stock of ice," and is especially attractive to those 
"who can draw inspiration from its mingled beauties," he well 
says, that "even in its best condition, it is but a miserable place 
for human development, physical, mental and moral," although 
"there is poetry in its every feature." " How much," he per- 
tinently asks, " of the poetry and literature of Europe would be 
intelligible to persons whose ideas had expanded only to the 
limits of a coral island? What elevation in morals should be ex- 
pected upon a contracted island, so readily overstocked that 
threatened annihilation drives to infanticide, and tends to the 
cultivation of the extremest selfishness. "Assuredly," he adds, 
" there is not a more unfavorable spot for moral or intellectual 
progress in the wide world than the coral island." 

The situation of the city of Nassau, and its commercial rela- 
tions with the outside world, save its people in a measure from 
the consequences which naturally result from a location upon a 
small island, of very limited resources, entirely destitute of 
mountains, and where neither rivers nor rivulets are seen wend- 
ing their way to the sea, to the music of their everfloAving waters. 
The generosity exhibited by many of the poorest of the negroes, 
was often the subject of favorable comment by people from the 
States. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Absence of W/'M Animals upon Coral Islands. Pleasures af the Chas6 
Unknown. Diet of the Aborigines. Hoio Alligators Taste. The Guanas as 
a Table Luxury. They are Intoxicated with Whistling Music. Vassar Girls 
Charming Turtles. 3Iounta,in Crabs. The Hermit Crab a Freebooter. The 
Lizards — Changing their Color and Hunting Game. Animals upon the West 
India Islands when Discovered. Snakes. Sea Turtles. Turtle Shell. Hoio 
Sjwnges Grow and form Communistic Communities. The Sponge Fisheries. 
Value and Quantity of Bahama Sponges Exported. 

"The world was made to be inhabited by beasts, but studied and 
contemplated by man." — Thomas Brown. 

But upon the Bahamas laan finds few animals to study and 
contemplate. At the time of their discovery by Columbus in 
1492, they were destitute of all the higher forms of animal life. 
The Bahamas belong to a recent geological age, and are some of 
the ornamental appendages with which the earth was decorated, 
thousands, and perhaps millions of years after it was made, and 
while, with its little partner, the moon, it was, as now, waltzing 
around the sun. This, in connection Avith the fact of their small 
extent and isolated position, accounts for that absence of animal 
life to which we have referred. Some domesticated animals — • 
the cow, the horse, the hog and the sheep — are now found upon 
the islands, but they are a part of the old world's gift to the new. 
That pet of many a household — man's friend, companion, guard 
and protector — the much abused dog — is not only frequently met 
with upon the islands, but it is reported tliat a native breed once 
existed that never barked. While we are unable to vouch for 

125 



136 iSLES OP SUMMfittr 

the truthfulness of tlie tradition, we are ready to believe tliat 
even ill-natured beasts would soon become amiable in the mild 
and soothing air, and that a canine millennium might, by the 
silent operation of natural laws, soon be established on those 
emerald isles. Perhaps we owe an apology to the dogs of the 
Bahamas for having stated that they are too lazy and indolent 
to bark — it may be that we should have said instead, that they 
are too amiable. The loud and persistent crowing of the roos- 
ters, during all the hours of the night, we have been recently 
assured is the crow of hunger, and not the genuine John Bull 
expression of a self-satisfied sentiment of conscious superiority. 

Killing for sport, and ''the pleasures of the chase," whether 
brutal or refined, could not have been among the pastimes of 
those who received and welcomed Columbus Jind his companions 
when they first landed upon the shores of the New World. And 
they had yet to learn the game of cruel and merciless war from 
the more educated and cultured savages of a higher civilization. 
In that they had no accumulated capital they were poor indeed, 
but free from the fevered dream of ambition, the unquenchable 
thirst of avarice^ and the tortures of unsupplied and constantly, 
increasing wants, they were vastly richer than any of the envied 
millionaires of either ancient or modern times. Simple, amiable 
and guileless children of nature, unlearned and uncultivated, 
happy and cheerful as the birds that flaunted their gay plumage 
in the spicy and perfumed air, they lived and loved in their little 
Gardens of Eden, with no ban upon the delicious and golden 
fruits of their uncultivated tropical orchards. 

These fruits, a limited supply of vegetables, and the fish whicli 
the surrounding ocean supplied at all times in great abundance, 
constituted their food. A vegetable and piscatory diet infused 
no frenzied fever in the blood or brain; and Avith no wild beasts 
in the forests or jungles, there was no savagery to be transmuted. 



ItlGATOES AS TABLE LUXTTElilg, THE GUAKA. 127 

Mr. McKinnen in liis " Tour," when speaking of his visit to 
Acklin's Island in 1802-3, says: "Alligators were sometimes 
brought in for the table, but it required considerable address to 
destroy them. The negroes, however, never dis23lay so much 
ingenuity or patience as in pursuit of prey. The flesh of an 
alligator which I tasted was hard, white and very much resembled 
the sturgeon's." We heard of no alligators at New Providence, 
and, as the Bahama Islands are destitute of rivers, we think it 
probable the alligators referred to had strayed away from their 
accustomed haunts, and that this huge reptile contributed little 
to the support of the ancient Lucayans. 

Lizards of small size are very common in New Providence. 
They are from six to twelve inches in length, and their ancestors 
could not here have very materially contributed to the mainte- 
nance of human life. But Mr. McKinnen, speaking of the con- 
dition of the island and their inhabitants in his own time, states 
that "the guana \iguana\ of the lizard tribe is found in the 
holes in the rocks in all the islands. In the cultivated parts the 
guana soon disappears, as they are easily taken, and their flesh 
is much esteemed by the negroes. " 

Mr. Bryan Edwards, of the island of Jamaica, in his history 
of the West Indies, published in Dublin in 1793, says, concern- 
ing the island, that 

" The woods were peopled with two very extraordinary creat- 
ures; both of which anciently were, and still are, not only used 
for food, but accounted superior delicacies. These are the iguana 
and the mountain crab." The former " is a species of lizard — • 
a class of animals about which naturalists are not agreed whether 
to rank them with quadrupeds, or to degrade them to serpents. 
* * * From the alligator, the most formidable of the family, 
measuring sometimes twenty feet in length, the gradation is 
regular in diminution of size to the small lizard of three inches; 



iSg' IStES OF SUMMER. 

the same figure and conformation nearly (tliougli not wliolly) 
prevailing in each. The iguana is one of the intermediate species, 
and is usually about three feet long, and proportionally bulky. 
It lives chiefly among fruit trees, and is perfectly gentle and in- 
noxious." He says they had then ''become generally scarce," 
except in places seldom visited by man. Also that " the English, 
even when they were more plentiful, did not often serve them 
at elegant tables, but their French and Spanish neighbors, less 
squeamish, still devour them with exquisite relish. " Also that 
a lady ''of great beauty and elegance," assured him, from her 
own experience, that they are " equal in flavor and wholesomeness 
to the finest green turtle." That "P. Labat likewise speaks of 
a fricasseed guana with high approbation. He compares it to a 
chicken for the whiteness of its flesh and the delicacy of its flavor." 
He quotes from the work of this " good father," (Tom iii, p. 
316,) his description of the novel mode then in vogue of captur- 
ing this species of game. "We were attended," he says, "by a 
negro, who carried a long rod, at one end of which was a piece 
of whip cord with a running knot. After beating the bushes for 
some time, the negro discovered our game basking in the sun on 
a dry limb of a tree. Hereupon he began whistling with all his 
might, to which the guana was wonderfully attentive, stretching 
out his neck and turning his head, as if to enjoy it more fully. 
The negro now approached, still whistling, and advancing his 
rod gently, began tickling with the end of it the sides and throat 
of the guana, who seemed mightily pleased with the operation, 
for he turned on his back, and stretched out like a cat before the 
fire, and at length fairly fell asleep, Avhich the negro perceiving, 
dexterously slipt the noose over his head, and with a Jerk brought 
him to the ground; and good sport it afforded to see the creature 
swell like a turkey-cock at finding himself entrapped. We caught 
others in the same way, and kept one of them alive seven or eight 



MUSIC LOVIKG REPTILES. 139 

days, but it grieved me to the heart to find tliat he thereby lost 
mnch delicious tat." 

That other members of the reptilian family are also keenly sen- 
sitive to whistling music, and greatly pleased and soothed by it, 
is evidenced by the following account which the author received 
from his daughter. She says: ^'Upon the college grounds at 
Vassar, there is a small artificial lake which is utilized for boat- 
ing in mild weather, and for skating in winter. It is well stocked 
with turtles, varying in size from one to about nine inches in 
length. It was common for the lady students to keep small 
ones in their rooms as pets. Perceiving that the one I had thus 
utilized and ^'adopted" had evidently an ear for certain kinds 
of music, especially whistling, I was induced to try an experi- 
ment upon other and larger turtles in the lake. The result far 
exceeded my anticipations. Pushing out from the shore in my 
little row boat, I could always, when so disposed, secure at once" 
at my whistling concerts for turtles, a numerous audience of all 
sizes, from three to nine or more inches in length. They would 
mount a log close to me, first one and then another taking its 
place, until the sittings were all occupied, and listen with wrapt 
and pleased attention. While the whistling continued, they 
turned their heads from side to side, and stretched them out 
from their shells to the farthest possible extent, as if anxious to 
see and hear to the uttermost. They would suffer me, at such 
times, to handle them, and the music, if such I may be permitted 
to call it, appeared to produce a very, quieting effect upon them. 
They seemed intoxicated with what must have been to them a 
new and strange pleasure. They would remain so long as I 
would whistle, and jump off into the water when the whistling- 
stopped. They liked the soft sweet airs, and were frightened by 
a lively tune, but I found that I could retain them as auditors 
of the more spirited tunes if I first quieted them and secured 



130 iSLES OT* SUMMEft. 

their confidence by whistling tunes which harmonized better with 
their sluggish natures. When the whistling stopped, the reptilian 
audience retired, and carried, perhaps, the news of the strange 
sounds they had heard to the more domestic turtles which had 
remained below in their watery abodes. They were not all alike 
gifted with a musical taste, for some evidently enjoyed it very 
much more than others. I found, after a time, that this novel 
sight caused often the attendance upon the shore of a large num- 
ber of the lady students, who were much interested and amused 
at these whistling turtle concerts." 

No doubt the New Providence guanas were long since exter- 
minated. The small lizards of to-day are certainly in appearance 
not very attractive as table luxuries. Capt. Fox, a near neigh- 
bor of ours at the hotel, secured a few living specimens, and held 
them in captivity for a few days, that he might critically examine 
them and observe their movements. We were, by his courtesy, 
also enabled to learn by personal observation some of their pe- 
culiarities, although generally we are content to get our reptilian 
knowledge second hand. 

The Bahama lizards possess the power of changing their colors,' 
like the chameleon. How this result is accomplished we do not 
know. They may have little vessels containing fluids variously 
colored, and as one set is expanded or contracted upon the sur- 
face, the lizards blossom out in broAvn, red, green or satin as the 
case may be. Thus each, without changing its dress, has at 
pleasure all the benefits of an ample and varied wardrobe. Tliis 
may result in frequent cases of mistaken identity, and cause 
mucli trouble and possibly no little innocent amusement. Their, 
eyes have movable lids; some species have dew-laps, which look 
like pouches under their chins, and all are considered harmless, 
although possessing teeth, which are simple in their sti'ucture. , 
They have an elongate round body, a snaky looking tongue, four 



REPTILES. 

1. Chelonia imbricata. "Hawkbill Turtle." About one-sixth natural 
size, from Holbrook's Herpetology. Tortoise shell, used for combs, jewelry, 
&c., is taken from this species. 

3. Sphmriodactylus notatus. Natural size. 3. Head of same, enlarged. 
4. Foot of same, enlarged, showing the suckers. From Report of Mexican 
Boundary Survey. 

5. Anolis principalis. Natural size. From Holbrook's Herpetology. 
Color, bright green, changing to brown, acording to health and weather. 



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REPTILES. 



I'HE LIZASD. 1^1 

sliort legs, eaeh with five digits, and travel upon the rocks and 
over the bushes and trees with considerable dexterity and agility, 
being essentially aided by a wiggling motion of their bodies and 
long tails. They always excited in us such a decidedly repugnant 
feeling, that we did not consider ourselves at all slighted when 
we observed on their part an evident desire to avoid us as disa- 
greeable intruders; and yet these reptiles are decidedly good 
looking and attractive when contrasted with another genus of the 
same family in Australia, whose ferocious appearance, armed as 
they are with horns on their heads and spines on their bodies, 
have secured for them the descriptive and suggestive name of 
"Horrid Molochs." 

One of our passengers from ISTassau to Fernandina in the 
Western Texas, was Mr. Albert H. Phelps, of West Pawlet, Vt.— 
a self-educated naturalist, only seventeen or eighteen years of age, 
having a most ardent love for natural history, who, while at 
Nassau, so taxed and exposed himself in the intensely hot sun, 
collecting and preserving as many specimens as possible of the 
singular forms of life in and out of the water, that he was at- 
tacked with a dangerous and malignant fever, and nearly lost 
his life. In regard to the New Providence lizards, he in sub- 
stance said: "I have ten or more species; some of them, includ- 
ing their long slender tails, are ten inches long. One, of a dark 
brown color, is very sliowy. It has five golden spots, and its 
back is so raised as to form a ridge. It has also a dew lap. 
After I knocked it down with a cane, the bright colors and the 
dew lap disappeared, and the reptile was all of a pale ash color. 
I killed another before he had time to change color. It was of 
an umber brown, with clusters of lemon yellow spots, very minute, 
so that a little distance off each cluster seemed a little spot. 
The dew lap was a rich shade of dark umber brown, with a rich 
stripe of yellow 'round the small bone under its jaw, and 'round 



13^ tSMS OV StTMMlfi. 

its foreliead and head of its nose. I read in Appleton's Americail 
Encyclopedia that there are no four footed reptiles that are dan- 
gerous. 1 have allowed the lizards of all descriptions to bite 
me, and never suffered, any inconvenience from it. Their bite 
is like that of turtles; they pinch hard, and have great strength 
in their jaws. The small lizards will stand and turn their heads 
and listen if you whistle. It is amusing to see them out hunting. 
They hunt insects that are large enough to attract their atten- 
tion. At a place where I used to go to get sea-eggs to dry, flies 
collected, and 1 would sit and watch them. They would see a 
fly Avlien two feet distant, and then lie down and creep towards 
it like a dog after a wood-chuck, or a cat after a mouse. 1 have 
seen them jump and catch flies, and catch them on the wing. 
Salamanders are not dangerous. I have tamed little red ones so 
that they would walk 'round on my finger. I never could get 
one of them, to bite me. They are perfectly harmless." 

In a communication received from our young friend, Mr. 
Phelps, of Vermont, while this chapter was in the printer's hands, 
he states: ''Many of the people of Nassau consider the flesh of 
the iguana a great delicacy. I was unable to test it personally, 
because none were offered for sale in the Nassau market. I ob- 
tained one from Cuba for my collection. They grow to a length 
of from three to four feet, including the tail, which is two-thirds 
the entire length. The head is large, and its capacious mouth 
is armed with about fifty teeth upon each jaw. The dew-lap has 
a depth about equal to the diameter of the head; it is triangular, 
and has about a dozen separations on its anterior border. Along 
its neck and back is a comb-like crest of fifty-five scales, which, 
extending to the tail, becomes simply a serrated ridge. The 
color above is greenish, with blue and slate tints; below it is a 
greenish yellow; generally, upon the sides, there are brown, zig- 
zag bands, with a yellowish borderj on the front of the shoulder 



fflE LIZARD. 133 

there is a yellowish band; some are dotted with brown, and have 
yellow spots on the limbs. The tail is ringed broadly with alter- 
nate brown and yellowish green colors." 

Mr. Phelps adds: " There are a great many small iguanas every 
where about Nassau. The most numerous species are about five 
inches in length, and are generally of a light gray color, but like 
the chamelion, they can change to several different hues at will. 
It is constantly on the hunt for small insects, and may at any 
time be seen on trees, walls and houses, running about in quest 
of its prey. 

" Another small species .abounds in all gardens. It is about 
seven inches long, and of the brightest grass-green color. It is 
much more slender than the one just described, has a tail which 
is twice the length of its body, and a very prominent dew-lap of 
a rich umber-brown tint. The dew-lap is peculiar to this order 
of lizards. It is capable of expansion and contraction at will, 
and, through its changes, an interchange of ideas seem to be 
effected; sight taking the place of sound as a medium for trans- 
mitting thought. 

" The blue-tailed lizard frequents hot, sandy places, and may be 
commonly seen about the battery. It is about ten inches long. 

" The lizard is small but very useful. Its mission is to keep 
insect life in tropical countries within reasonable and proper 
bounds. They are exceedingly spry, and very amusing in their 
habits. They never molest any one, and their mission, so far as 
man is concerned, is decidedly friendly and beneficial."' 

Mr. Phelps states that he saw upon the island of New Provi- 
dence, three species of the tree frog, one of which was very large. 

Also that he had collected while at Nassau, from fifteen to 
twenty species of crabs, including three or four kinds of land 
crabs. Mr. Edwards, in his history of the West India Islands, 
speaking of the mountain crab, says: 



IM ISLES OF StJMME:^. 

''It is, without doubt, one of (lie choicest morsels in nature/' 
It formerly was found in immense numbers, and the observation 
of Du Tertre that they were "a living and perpetual supply of 
manna in the wilderness, equalled only by the miraculous bounty 
of Providence to the children of Israel when wandering in the 
desert," is said to have been no exaggeration. The Indians re- 
lied upon them with confidence when all other provisions were 
scarce, and the supply was always equal to their wants. 

When Edwards wrote it. still existed in large numbers, but he 
thought the time of its extinction was then near at hand. 

Dli Tertre described them as living in a kind of orderly soci- 
ety in their retreats in the mountains, and as having annual night 
marches to the sea, by the shortest and straightest lines, like a 
well drilled and admirably organized army under able and ex- 
perienced commanders. The waves relieve the crabs of their 
spawn; the eggs are soon hatched in the sand of the shore, and 
millions of young crabs, impelled by a power invisible, mys- 
terious and divine, are soon seen slowly making their Avay to the 
mountains. Crowding each other upon the eastern coast of the 
Atlantic states, the human instinct has to be quickened by the 
loud clarion notes of command to induce the young men to '''go 
West," but these little crabs seem to be endowed with more 
practical wisdom, and to push inland of their own accord. 

The hermit crab, a singular and well known species, is com- 
mon upon the shores of the Bahamas. It has A^ery loose ideas 
upon the subject of the personal rights of its fellow creatures, 
and is to the full extent of itsca2"»abilities, a first-class freebooter. 
Having captured a little circular shell fish, it uses the shell of its 
prisoner to cover and protect the vulnerable portion of its own 
organism, makes itself perfectly at home in its new but stolen 
house, occupies it as tenant in common, pays no rent, compels 
its captive to make all the repairs, and to accompany it on its 
travels over the rocky shore. 



West india indigekotts an-imalS. 1^5 

Mr. Edwards states that there anciently existed upon the 
Windward or Caribbee Islands all the animals that were found 
upon the larger islands, and some others in addition. The latter 
were found at the time when he wrote in Guana, and few or 
none of them in N'orth America, which helped to make him be- 
lieve that the Windward Islands were anciently peopled from 
the south. He mentions only eight kinds of land animals as 
having been found in the West Indies, viz. : 

1. The agouti — (''the mus aguti of Linnaeus, and the cavy 
of Pennant and Buffon ") " constitutes an intermediate species 
between the rabbit and the rat." He believed it extinct except 
in the larger islands. 

3. The pecary — {" the sus tajacic of Linnaeus, and ihe pecary 
and Mexican musk hog of English naturalists.") It differed 
from the European hog in that it had a gland upon its back 
from which there was a musky discharge, while it sported gay 
colors, its bristles being pale blue tipped with white. It was 
also more courageous, and would attack the dogs that hunted 
them. In 1793 it had been exterminated in the West Indies, but 
it abounded in some portions of Mexico. 

3. The annadilla was called ''the nine handed. It was cov- 
ered with a jointed shell or scaly armor, and rolled itself up like 
the hedge-hog. As an article of diet it was very delicate and 
wholesome. " It was once found in all the West Indies, but was 
extinct when Edwards wrote. 

4. The oppossum (or monitoii) grows its own bag in which 
under its belly, it shelters and carries its young. This animal 
like the pecary, Edwards thinks was unknown in the larger 
islands. 

5. " The raccoon was common in Jamaica in the time of 
Sloane, who observes that it was eaten by all sorts of people." 
It was belieyed to have been exterminated when Edwards wrote* 



136 ISLES OF SilliMtlE. 

6. The musk rat — {the piloris ot naturalists) — abounded on 
some of the islands, and may have been the agouti. 

7. The alco or native dog, that did not bark, was carefully 
fattened by the natives, and esteemed a great delicacy as an 
article of diet. Edwards quotes the following from Acosta: " In 
St. Domingo at first there were no dogs but a small mute creature 
resembling a dog, with a nose like that of a fox, which the na- 
tives called alco. The Indians were so fond of these little ani- 
mals that they carried them on their shoulders wherever they 
went, or nourished them in their bosoms. " 

8. Monkeys. These were used for food, and are said to have 
very much the flavor of hare. Englishmen seem to have had a 
sort of Darwinian instinct, and to have deemed an invitation to 
dine upon monkeys substantially the same as to pick the dry 
bones of their dead ancestors. 

The only snake we saw while at the Bahamas, was discovered 
and killed near the west gate of the hotel enclosure. We think 
they are neither numerous or dangerous. 

Mr. Phelps writes that the chicken snake is the only represen- 
tative upon the island of New Providence of the whole family of 
serpents; that it resembles the milk snake; and that it is reported 
to attain sometimes a length of fifteen feet, but that the largest 
one he saw and measured was six feet long, and two inches in 
diameter in the largest part. He adds: "They are jierfectly 
harmless. The only venomous creatures on the island are the 
tarantulas, or ground spiders, as they are called by the natives. 
They are found but rarely, and only upon the plantations. In 
my many excursions I never came across either a tarantula or a 
scorpion. My specimens were obtained of the negroes, whose 
services were secured through the stimulating influence of pecu- 
niary rewards. Centipedes are occasionally met with, but their 
sting, though very painful, is not fatal," 



SSA TtTiltLES. 131' 

Several large and valuable kinds of sea turtles are found in the 
Bahama waters, as was evidenced by the bountiful supply of ex- 
cellent turtle soups and turtle steaks often seen upon the dining 
room tables of the Eoyal Victoria Hotel. The Hawk's Bill tur- 
tle yields the beautiful tortoise shell that figures so prominently in 
ladies' toilets. The shells of the Green, and also of the Yellow 
or Mulatto turtles, are said to be in lamina too thin for practical 
use. The name " Green Turtle " we suppose was given them on 
account of the green color of the fat under their shells. Turtle 
steak is very light colored, and looks and tastes like the tender 
meat of a chicken. Stepping upon a platform adjoining a Nas- 
sau dock, we looked down through a trap door into a crawl which 
contained a large number of sea turtles, varying in weight we 
should think, from fifty to one hundred or more pounds. The 
shells of some of them at least, equalled in size the one the poet 
Wadsworth thus very unpoetically describes: 

" The shell of a green turtle, thin 
And hollow ; you might sit therein 
It was 80 wide and deep." 

We observed them with much interest. They appeared con- 
tented and happy although somewhat restless. Our first impres- 
sion was that they were either holding a mass meeting or a 
sociable. Then we queried whether they had not come to Nassau 
on a marooning excursion. But they were so dignified and 
solemn, and seemed so loaded down with a heavy weight of cares, 
we finally concluded they were holding a session of the sub-marine 
reptilian *^ Parliament." That they were loyal and patriotic 
may be inferred from the fact that they were soon to lose their 
lives for the public good. Turtles and turtle shells are ex- 
ported from the Bahamas of the annual value of from three 
thousand to four thousand dollars. It is said that the sea turtle 



1^§ tSLBS Of StJMirBS. 

will live several weeks without food — consuming meantime we 
suppose, its own fat. Upon unfrequented and desolate little 
islands or keys, covered with sand, weeds and bushes, the sea 
turtles lay their eggs in great numbers, which are incubated by 
the sun — each newly hatched little rej)tile thereby, all uncon- 
sciously, acting the part of the infant Moses in the bulrushes. 
The turtle as a pedestrian is not a great success, as his four legs 
are very short and widely separated. But it is apparent from the 
size of the turtle steaks that he has great muscular power, and in 
'^ paddling his own canoe " in the water, although- weighted with 
a complete coat of mail, he can make very good time. 

The aborigines of the island of Cuba captured the sea turtle 
by a process novel and ingenious. Tying a long cord to the tail 
of a sucker-fish, which the Spaniards called the reves, (of the 
Echeneis genera,) they cast it into the water in the narrow and 
winding channels frequented by the sea turtles, and the fish 
first fastening its suckers, which surrounded a flat disc upon its 
head, upon the turtle's coat of mail, retains its hold until the 
piscatory captor and captive were safely drawn out of the water. 
Columbus alleged that the reves would suffer itself to be dismem- 
bered rather than relax its hold upon its unfortunate victim. It 
may be presumed that this singular method of fishing for turtles 
was followed by the natives of the Bahama Islands. Humboldt, 
in his " Island of Cuba," states that when this new mode of fish- 
ing was reported in Europe, the story was discredited and con- 
sidered *■' only a traveler's tale." He adds that on the eastern 
coast of Africa, near Cape Natal, a similar artifice was used. 

The most valuable product of the Bahama waters is the Spon- 
gida, which yields the sponge of commerce — an article which 
ministers in so many ways to the comfort and wants of man. It 
has been growing in popular favor for the past forty years, as its 
capacity for varied and extensive usefulness has been gradually 



developed. Fasieiied to the rocks by roots, maturing germs like 
buds, and looking like a fungus, an ordinary obseryer can hardly 
believe the learned men of science when informed by them that 
it is an animal. The spongidae are found in water from twelve 
to thirty feet deep, and are detached from the rocks by divers or 
by fishermen with the aid of long poles having hooks with two 
prongs. Water glasses, like those hereafter described in our chap- 
ter upon corals, are also used when the water is rough. A large 
number of boats and men are employed in the business. 

When we went to Nassau we supposed we knew sponges, but 
we were greatly mistaken. When taken from the water they are 
dark colored, and in ajapearance resemble liver. The sponge of 
commerce consists of the flexible fibrous skeletons of a large colony- 
of sponges. The very small and clustered animals are so closely 
united, and so arranged, as to form a mass of tubes, through 
which the sea water containing their food is made to circulate 
by means of very small hairs or cilia which line the cavities, and 
vibrate at the will of the animal, so that each can take its ap- 
propriate nourishment as the water passes through. It seems to 
be a communistic community, where each works for the common 
benefit of all. The principle works well, and would produce 
equally good results in human societies if man had only a little 
more of the nature and disposition of a s]3onge conferred upon 
him. The water is discharged through the larger orifices. It 
has been well said that " the sj)onge represents a kind of suba- 
queous city, where the people are arrayed about the streets and 
roads, in such a manner that each can appropriate his food from 
the water as it passes along." The supply of water is stopped 
when the orifices or gates of these marine cities are closed, but 
how such multitudes of animals, that are inseparably united and 
permanently attached to one spot, can be so regulated and man- 
aged as to secure harmony and the common good of all, we cannot 
fully understand. 



f40 iStfiS OF STJMMEtle 

Aside from its many curious forms, some of whlcli are beauti- 
ful, the sponge when first taken from the water has a very 
unpromising appearance, and its odor is offensire. The sponge 
of commerce is merely its skeleton or framework. This is sur- 
rounded by a glairy, gelatinous substance, which formerly was 
removed by burying the sponges in the sand for a few days, and 
afterwards whipping them with sticks. But now they are kept 
uj)on deck for two or three days, when they lose their vital- 
ity ; afterwards they are placed in a crawl and kept there from 
eight to ten days; then they are cleansed and bleached in 
the sun and air upon the beach. Afterwards, upon their ar- 
rival in Nassau, the roots are cut oE, and they are trimmed 
and packed for exportation. Some of those oifered for sale in 
the hotel court were doubtless bleached with chemicals. The 
result in such cases is that the strength of the fibre is impaired. 
The sponges grow sometimes in forms so singular and unique 
that they command from strangers a good price as curiosities. 

We were shown at Judge VanVolkenberg'a house in Florida, 
what seemed to be a package two or three feet in length, of beau- 
tiful small glass threads, and were very greatly surprised to learn 
that it was a species of Japanese sponge. It was obtained in 
Japan when the Judge filled the office of United States minister 
to Japan. 

We also saw in the little embryo museum which is connected 
with the Nassau public library, a delicate foreign sponge, packed 
in cotton wool, which closely resembled handsome thread lace. 

In a recent official report of the Governor of the Bahamas, he 
states that it has been discovered in Germany that tlie sponge 
may be propagated by cuttings from living specimens, Avhich, 
when fastened to pieces of board, are j^laced in the sea. Skilful 
cultivation may hereafter result in the production of the more 
taluable sponges in many parts of the ocean world where they 
are not at present found. 



SPONGES. 

1. Tuba plicifera. " Bouquet Sponge." 

3. ParJiychalina rubens. " Silk Sponge." Color, when living, red. 

3. Hircinia purpurea. "Wire Sponge." 

4. Spongia . tubulifera. "Finger Sponge." A peculiar variety of the 
'Glove Sponge." 



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Pundorscm5.Cn^=inttl\ie vJiavuTi wl. 



SPONGES 



. -.- BPOKGES. : 14J 

Oiii" Bahama experience has secured for the sponge a con- 
spicuous and pleasant place in our memory. It is no longer 
what it has been. It has become glorified and hallowed. We 
look at it v;ith new eyes, and handle it with a feeling of re- 
spect akin to reverence, for it reflects something of that divine 
and creative wisdom that caused it to grow, in part at least for 
man's benefit, upon the white limestone floor over which the 
clear, warm waters of the ocean surrounding the coral islands 
ceaselessly roll. Perhaps a more thorough and extensive explor- 
ation of the beds of the ocean world may bring to light new and 
valuable additions to the sponge-producing waters. In the sea 
dredging off the coast of Massachusetts some specimens of Spongi- 
dse have been obtained. 

The Bahama sponges differ very much in quality, and conse- 
quently in value. Some are quite small and fine — others large 
and coarse. Some have a texture so firm that the hardest wring- 
ing and pulling does not tear them. Others, having the same 
general appearance, are easily picked to j^ieces with the thumb 
and finger. The difference in softness is also very marked. The 
novice needs to be on his guard, and to exercise much caution 
in making purchases, for he is not only in great danger of buying 
a poor and perhaps worthless article, but of imposition in the 
matter of price. It is never jDleasant to feel that we have been 
imposed upon, but it is mortifying for one boasting of Caucassian 
blood to be cheated by an ignorant and unlettered negro. 

Sponges are daily offered for sale in the court of the Eoyal 
Victoria Hotel. They are strung together, a dozen or more upon 
a striiig, and most visitors purchase a supjily for home use. They 
are much cheaper than those sold at retail in the States, and 
when dried and pressed occupy but little room. In the waters 
surrounding the islands of Abaco, Exuma and Andros the 
sponges are found in the greatest abundance; and the Abaco 



143 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 

sponges were represented to be the best by those who sold sponges 
at the hotel. 

For the purposes of sale the Bahama sponges are divided into 
eight classes, and though they find a ready market, they are con- 
sidered inferior to those which are found in the Mediterranean — 
and this is equally true of corals. I was informed by an exten- 
sive dealer in sponges, that the Florida waters produce sponges 
of a quality superior to those of the Bahamas, though not equal 
to those of the Mediterranean, 

The quantity and value of sponges annually exported from the 
Bahamas has not been uniform. In 1855, sponges were exported 
of the value of nearly 150,000; in 1861, of over $150,000; in 
1877, over $90,000; in 1878, nearly $125,000; and the aver- 
age for ten years prior to 1864 was nearly $87,000. The increase 
in quality and value in 1878 was caused by the re-opening of the 
Cuban sponge fisheries which were closed during the Cuban in- 
surrection. The Bahama sponge fleet entered last year the Cuban 
waters, and by over production soon broke down the market. 
Some of the finer qualities were exported to France, but the 
largest portion of the Bahama sponges are sent to the United 
States and to England. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Amusements. Small and Isolated Communities thrown upon their Own Re- 
sources. Visit of a Circus Gompanv to Nassau. Its Effect upon the Negroes. 
Whist and Boating Clubs. Base-ball and Polo. Military and Marbles. 
Religion Utilizing the Idle Hours. Streets Placarded with Notices of Solemn 
Fcosts. Absence of a Color Line in Churches. Amateur Fishing. The Boat- 
men Canvassing for Customers. Capt. Sampson a Fisher of Men. He Describes 
and Discitsses the Sharks. 

The people of Nassau, oAving to their isolated condition, are 
compelled to rely upon their own resources for amusement. A 
Bahama nimrod has no horn or hoof or hide among his trophies. 
His game is in the sea. In the variety and abundance of its 
fauna, the ocean to some extent, makes up for the absence of 
animal life in the impenetrable jungles. The birds have mostly 
been compelled to build their nests and rear their young upon 
secluded and uninhabited islands. Nassau's " back country" is 
small in extent, and the continuity of the shade and the profound 
depth of the solitude which ever rests upon the island beyond 
the city's borders, can hardly be said to be broken by the two or 
three little hamlets where a few negroes have their humble homes. 
Hence the almost entire absence of the thousand and one enter- 
tainments that compete for a portion of the time and money of 
the people in all the cities of the Union. These, with us, are 
largely due to our facilities for inter-communication. They mul- 
tiply as our steam commercial marine increases, and with every 
enlargement of our railroad system. Theatrical exhibitions, 
menageries, concerts by companies of eminent musicians, lectures 



lU ISLES OF SUMMEE. 

from famous and gifted men, and great gatherings of represen-. 
tative men in science, religion and politics, and for moral 
reforms, must inevitably be as rare in the Bahamas as skating 
rinks. During the wild excitement that prevailed in Nassau 
when, during the late rebellion, it was practically a confederate 
port, under the protection of the flag of Great Britain, a stone 
building was erected for theatrical exhibitions. The astonished 
winds immediately blew its roof off and otherwise damaged it,, 
so that its bare monumental walls alone remain to commemorate 
the important part which ISTassau played in the great war of the 
Southern rebellion. But no inference can properly be drawn 
from the fact of its destruction by the angry elements, that the 
theatre was especially objectionable to the spirit that rides upon 
the whirlwind and directs the storm, because churches as well as 
other public and many private buildings were blown down at the 
same time. We have no doubt that the Bahama government, in. 
these calm sober days, would prefer as a paying investment, warm- 
ing pans to theatres. 

Nassau and its surroundings have much to interest a stran- 
ger, especially if he has spent his life in more northern latitudes; 
but to her own citizens, it must be a very dull place notwith- 
standing an occasional hurricane and frequent wrecks. In the 
winter of 1878, '79, a traveling circus company chartered a steam- 
boat and visited some of the AVest India Islands. Their arrival 
in Nassau produced a deep and profound sensation. The landing 
of Columbus and his followers upon a neighboring island nearly 
four centuries before, with gilded cross and emblazoned banner, 
was not a greater surprise or productive of half the pleasure. 
No alloy of fear marred the happiness which the arrival of the 
acrobats occasioned. Heralded from afar, and accompanied in 
their grand march through the streets of Nassau by musicians 
who made the soft and languid air vibrate with a melody it never 



A CIBOUS. GOVERNMENTAL SHOWS. 145 

had before experienced, richly clad in costumes, striped, bespan- 
gled and radiant with burnished silver and shining gold, they 
seemed to many an unlettered and untraveled looker-on, four- 
fold more the children of the sun than did the Spanish discoverers 
of 1493. The new Jerusalem, as seen in the fervid dreams 
of Nassau's dusky, religious devotees, surely cannot boast so 
gorgeous a chariot, nor do horses of equal grace and beauty tread 
the golden and jewelled streets of their celestial city. A wild 
and bewildering excitement took possession of Grant's Town, 
and, like an electric atmosphere, pervaded the thoroughfares and 
by-ways of Nassau itself. While the show lasted, the contribu- 
tions levied upon the guests of the Royal Victoria Hotel, to 
enable the little negroes to see it and be forever happy, were quite 
formidable in number if not in amount. Indeed, some of the 
juveniles were smart and enterprising enough to make it an ex- 
cuse for obtaining a good supply of shillings for future use. "We 
suspect that the circus as a motive power and moral force in the 
world has been underestimated. We esteemed it more highly after 
we witnessed its effects in that island of unending summer. In- 
dolence retired, and ambition came out of its tomb of death at 
its approach. Long live the circus ! 

As we have elsewhere shown, the forms, ceremonies, symbols, 
trappings and paraphranalia of a royal government, furnish an 
integral and very important part of Nassau's amusements. lu 
this point of view, colonial institutions on a monarchial model 
are a real godsend. For people living outside of the limits of 
the great world of human activity and life, without railroads, 
telegraphs, steamboats, telephones, capital, enterprise, or busi- 
ness, it seems to be a pleasant but expensive diversion. 

A whist club exists'at Nassau. It is composed of the governor, 
and a few high officials and prominent citizens, numbering, as we 
were informed, some fifteen in all. They meet twice a week, in 

13 



146 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 

the evening from eight to eleven o'clock; Friday at the " Grovern- 
ment House," (the Governor's residence,) and Tuesdays at the 
houses of the other members. They play nothing but whist, and 
loyally follow the English custom of putting up sixpenny stakes, 
''just to increase a little the interest, and keep things lively," 
as my informant expressed it. AYe Avere also told that on these oc- 
casions ''they never drink to excess, and no excess of any kind 
is indulged in." Excess, as applied to drinking, is a very flexible 
uncertain word. Such of the high officials as we saw drink could 
not be called " hard " drinkers, for we never saw men drink more 
easy than they did, or appear to take to it more naturally, or en- 
joy it more. In carrying capacity, also, they are at least the 
peers of their American cousins. The belief is wide spread, that 
spirituous liquors moderately used as a beverage in warm climates, 
are conducive to health. Where malarial poisons are exhaled, 
quinine and alcoholic drinks are considered by many absolute 
necessaries. We have no doubt about the value of quinine as a 
tonic and malarial antidote, but have no sufficient basis of fact 
in regard to the use of alcoliol, in such cases, upon which to form 
an opinion satisfactory to ourselves, or of value to others. It is a 
question which has two sides. If that which we saw drank was 
used for sanitary reasons, the quantity imbibed indicated a' 
country most alarmingly unhealthy. The treatment Ave thought 
partook of the "heroic." 

Nassau formerly had a yachting club, and in all probability its 
organization remains, but nothing occurred Avhile we were there 
to indicate that it still lives. It certainly Avas torpid if not dead 
—chloroformed by climate. No regattas, as of yore, pleasantly 
disturbed the ocean tides, or the dreamy quiet of the city's every 
day life. Something of the sadness Avhich folloAvs in the wake 
of pleasure, and of the melancholy Avhich hovers over departed 
joySj surrounds and envelopes the yacht club's silent boat-liouse. 



The ambition of the young men is not excited or increased by 
bat and ball, or boat and oar. Archery, an out-door diversion, 
which connects the high-toned men and maidens in England to- 
day, with the people of pre-historic times, and which, with 
feathered shafts and twanging bow, projects the distant stone 
age into the age of gold, has not as yet, been re-established upon 
these islands, where it flourished in the time of Columbus. Ee- 
quiring little physical exertion, arousing no fierce passions, stir- 
ring the bosom with only pleasurable excitement, its highest en- 
joyment secured when both sexes participate in its sport, a semi- 
tropical climate would seem to be peculiarly favorable to its prac- 
tice and cultivation. But the more violent games of foot-ball 
and polo flourish instead, and call out many spectators on the 
afternoons of Tuesday and Friday of each week, including the 
elite of the town in carriages. Polo results occasionally in a 
broken bone, and foot-ball excites to spirited struggles for the 
mastery. The negroes in the military department when off duty, 
are perhaps more to be commended, for, when not idle, or occu- 
pied with their lady friends, they are satisfied, (according to one 
of the official medical reports,) with flying paper kites, and the 
lowly and quiet game of marbles. No doubt many of the Queen's 
ebony subjects would rather be the humble turtle, that idly basks 
and meditates upon a rock in the sun, than the most beautiful 
antelope that ever scaled the craggy heights of a mountain. 
With the thermometer in the eighties in the shade, I could the 
better understand the wisdom and good sense of such a prefer- 
ence. But, then, upon us high-toned English precedents pro- 
duced but little effect. 

One result of the absence at iS'assau of the innumerable and 
varied private sports and public amusements which exist in all 
cities and large towns in the States is, to give greater prominence 
and importance to the church. Religion has its social side, and, 



148 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 

in the States, it is apparently often deemed advisable if not nec- 
essary, to unite all who worship or statedly attend devotional 
exercises in the same place, in what is practically a social club. 
It is difficult for the church to secure the attendance of people 
generally to its meetings of a purely religious and devotional 
character, where the cities are constantly placarded, and the 
columns of the newspapers teem with notices and advertisements 
of an endless variety of shows and public entertainments. Hence 
the number of church fairs, church festivals, church feasts, 
church concerts, and church picnics. It has been deemed nec- 
essary, not so much to aid the church as an aggressive force in 
the world, but in self-defense, to surround religion with some of 
the rational enjoyments and healthy diversions which otherwise 
will be practically used by the devil to undermJne its influence 
and destroy its power. At Nassau, religion dominates without 
these adjuncts, as it did in New England ni the days of the pil- 
grims — and for the same reason. 

Public attention is called to some of the holy days and fasts of 
the church by placards, printed in large type and posted upon 
the street corners and in other public places. Good Friday was 
thus announced, and the following we copied from one of the 
hand-bills. 

''Good Friday. 

" Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? 

" Good Friday is the most solemn, the most awful day in the 
whole year to the Christian. 

" On Good Friday, the Lord Jesus Christ, God in the nature 
of man, suffered on the cross of shame, dying that He might 
save you. 

'' It is everything to you that He died, for He suffered.for your 
sin — yes, your'sl 



ASH XtED.NTESPAY. 14^ 

'''Mow then will yon spend Good Friday? If yonr father, 
mother, wife, or husband, son or daughter, died — if they died to 
save your life, would you choose the anniversary of their death to 
make merry and take a holiday? No, you would not." 

We omit the three concluding paragraphs. 

Another street hand-bill read as follows: 

"^'AsH Wedkesday. 

" The first day of Lent; 

" The church's special call to repentauce. 

" Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn as- 
sembly; — 

'* G-ather the people; sanctify the congregation; assemble the 
elders; gather the children and those that suck the breasts; let 
the bridegroom go forth out of his chamber, and the bride out of 
her closet. 

" Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the 
porch and the altar, and let them say, spare thy people, Lord, 
and give not thy heritage to reproach, that the heathen should 
rule over them; wherefore should they say among the people, 
where is their God?" — Joel ii, Chap. 15 — 17 verses. 

That these solemn occasions are to many quite attractive is 
doubtless true. They diversify the every day life of the people, 
although they are not, in the strict sense of the term, amuse- 
ments. But they are a real recreation no doubt, for some, and 
not a cross. The old lady exhibited something akin to this feel- 
ing when she complained of the solitary situation of her dwelling 
house; she did not like it, she said there was *' nothing going on 
there — no funerals, nor nothing." 

Could Black Beard and the other pirates who rendezvoused 
and dominated in Nassau in the early historic times, walk its 
streets to-day, they could not but be greatly impressed with the 



150 iSLES OV SUMMER. 

moral and religious changes v/hicli have taken place. While the 
little capital has doubtless its fl^ll share of the vices which mar 
the civilization of modern times, and is by some declared to be 
a very wicked place, yet, compared with what it was in Black 
Beard's day, it is the very garden of the Lord. 

Judging from outward appearances, religion at Nassau is built 
upon a very democratic basis. In their public assemblies all are 
"one in Christ." There is no ''color line." 

No seats are set apart in the churches, where the white.element 
preponderates, for colored people. The blood of the two races is 
greatly and curiously mixed, mingled, and combined. The line 
that marks the division between day and night is not more uncer- 
tain and difficult to determine than the color line in Nassau. A 
prominent white citizen informed us, and it seemed both to amuse 
and astonish him, that the whites upon Abaco island persist in 
exclusively occupying one side of the church. These people, 
who place such a high value upon their blood, descended, he said, 
from the pirates! Mucli to their chagrin the Governor appointed 
a negro to fill the office of resident magistrate upon that island, 
because he excelled them in a competitive examination. The 
black squire occupied a seat in the isle which separated tlie 
'•'children of darkness" from the "children of light." 

Many of the visitors at Nassau find in fishing pleasant and 
useful occupation for some of their leisure hours. Arrangements 
for boats and bait are consummated, the party made up, and the 
time and place agreed upon a day or two in advance. The ex- 
penses, divided per capita among the gentlemen forming the 
party, are trifling. Good sailing and good fishing can be calcu- 
lated upon with confidence, as it is very rare indeed that there 
is any failure of a favorable wind, or of an abundance of piscatory 
game. The boatmen are accustomed to bring "the catch" to 
the court of the hotel, where their captors, with a laudable pride 



fEX PHOTOGRAPH OF SAMPSOIT. 151 

exliibit the substantial evidences of their skill. Sometimes a 
huge shark is thus exhibited. The great variety of the fish, 
(often a dozen or more different kinds,) the large size of most, 
and the brilliant colors and wonderful beauty of many when first 
taken from the water, attract the attention of the guests of the 
hotel,^ and secure many exclamations of astonishment and pleas- 
ure. Some usually are then given to the hotel steward, and the 
balance to the boatmen. But the dead sharks often yield ui3 
their large and well armed jaws, and sometimes their spinal col- 
umns, as trophies to their captors, who esteem them as souvenirs. 

It is often amusing, and always interesting, to watch and listen 
to the boatmen while they canvass for customers. In this busi- 
ness Sampson is an adept, and always eminently conspicuous. 
His good sense, experience, volubility and zealous and persistent 
attention to his business, place him naturally in advance of his 
competitors. His dress is always neat and showy, but his ward- 
robe is evidently pretty well stocked, for he frequently blossoms 
out in costumes of varied styles and colors. Neither does his ever 
active tongue vibrate always alike, or his thoughts and illustra- 
tions run in the same well oiled groove. We add a little pen 
picture as a sample of what is daily seen and heard on such oc- 
casions. 

To a grouj) of gentlemen and ladies sitting cosily in large arm 
chairs in the cool shade of the court of the Eoyal Victoria, Samp- 
son is telling his story, and answering questions. He is about 
six feet high, muscular, well-formed, bright, active, ingenious, 
good-natured, and cunning. He on this occasion sports a clean, 
white jacket, with a wide turn-over collar, lined with blue cloth, 
and having a white line running round it. Its pockets are adorned 
with blue binding. In one of the pockets is a white handker- 
chief, ornamented with red lines and red corners. His shirt has 
no collar, but it is well laundried, and its bosom sports a gold 



153 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 

stud. A substantial palm, leaf hat of good quality rests jauntily 
a little on one side of his head, the body of which is encircled 
and almost covered with a wide, black ribbon, upon which is 
stamped in golden capitals, the word " Tridejtt," the name of 
his yacht. He has on a pair of neat, dark colored, woolen panta- 
loons, turned up a trifle at the bottom, which, by their length, 
are suggestive of the probable fact that they once belonged to a 
man who boasted a longer and probably whiter pair of legs. 

He addresses his remarks more particularly to several gentle- 
men who arrived in the last steamer, with a dignity and gravity 
calculated to inspire respect and confidence. He insists that 

''If de gentlemen choose ter go, dare aint no difficulty 'bout 
der fish — I ken promise yer dat. We'll just anchor der boat at 
soundings, with her tail to der ocean, when we get where der fish 
ar. The moment I gets over whar dey ar, you haint got to feel 
for 'em, but jess pull 'em in. If der sharks don't bother yer, 
there's no mistake about it. We ken wait till Thursday, 'cause 
der wind is sou-east now; it will be south to-morrow, and Thurs- 
day she'll fetch 'round all right. I want to wait till Thursday, 
'cause I know for sure Thursday. " 

''Is there no danger of accident, Sampson?" 

" Deres no trouble if der boatman don't lose his head. Sam- 
son has got along so far and never lost his head, thank God. I 
never had any accident; God has spar'd me thus fur; hope 1 
shall alers get along and not lose my head. " 

"Sampson, now tell us truly, have you ever studied circum- 
navigation?" 

" I karnt say honest, I knows dat. I don't claim I ever larned 
circumnavigation; but I do know for sure that I ken sail der 
Trident any whar in dese yer waters when any one can, and: I 
dQn't kar who he is. " 

"But how about the sharks, Sampson?" . . 



"Der sharks bother us sometimes. Dey comes in wid der 
tide. T'other day one jest swallowed der bait, hook and all, and 
towed der boat where he liked. We wouldn't let him go, and 
der shark couldn't get away. After that my boat hit him with 
an oar and confused him. We brought him ashore, and had 
him in a hand-cart, a great big fellow. It was a bonnet-cub 
shark. We'll kill some when we go fishing, but they'll not let 
us bring 'em ashore now 'cause of der smell." 

'' You call 'em bomiet-cvib sharks — why is that?" 

''Kause there's something 'bout dar heads that looks like an 
old fashion ladies' bonnet." 

''Aren't the sharks dangerous, Sampson? Don't they some- 
times attack men?" 

" I never see 'em hurt any one. One year arter der war I was a 
diving for couchs, the water was deep, and I took der first shell I 
could find. Then I has a way of putting my foot on der bottom 
and giving a shove to come up. I was finning up, and when I 
got 'near my boat, what did I see but a great big bonnet-cub 
lying there looking at me. He was seventeen feet long. Wasn't 
I skar'dl He was as long as my boat. He looked at me kinder 
anxious like. When I got to my boat I rolled in all in a heap, 
quicker— you may bet on that. He Just missed me. He 
'peared disappointed like, wiggled his tail and went off. I've 
been skar'd ever since. I don't forget his eye and der look he 
gin me. I never knew dey had eyes in der outer edge of der 
heads that way afore." 

"You don't mean to say, Sampson, that you was afraid of a 
shark?" 

" I mean to say he confused me. I had a heap rather look at 
'em from der Trident, den to see 'em star at Sampson in der 
water so wicked, der way he did." 

**But do you think if they are not disturbed they will attack 



154 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

,'):^ople? Some say if you splash the water it will frighten them 
•i*vay; that they are timid, or at least cautious and scary." 

"Every one of 'em will eat men. I wouldn't trust any of 
em. Der last shark we caught had a dozen fish in him, and 
ieads, and lines, and hooks, all to pieces in him. We got one 
t'other day seven feet long. Some are twelve feet and more. 
A man went fishing some time ago to Andros island, in his boat. 
dis name was Carter. He didn't come back. They 'spected 
something had happened, and sarched for him next day. When 
tliey got near der reef whar he war, they saw his boat — der man, 
ae warnt there. The boat either swamped or tipped over. It had 
some turtle and fish in it ho had caught. Der man was gone. 
Afterwards, two large cubs Avere seen cruising 'bout dar. One 
was caught, and in him they found some turtles and two-quarters 
of a man — so I 'spose der sharks divided even. " 

Sampson's persistent zeal and unfailing eloquence made him 
always a success in securing his full share of business, and his 
experience and skill as a boatman were always conceded by his 
-customers. 



CHAPTER X. 

Yachting in Bahama Waters. Sampson and his THton. Testing a Sail- 
boat. Searching Outside in a Good Wifid for the Line Storm. Sampson's 
Visit to New York. His Experiences and Impressions. Reliable Winds — 
Delightful Views— Congenial Friends. The Log of the Pleasure Seekers. 
Newly Discovered Poets. The Oulf Weed. 

"The winds, full of sound — they go whispering by, 
As if some immortal had stooped from the sky, 

And breathed out a blessing— and flown!" — John Neal. 

Foe safe and attractive boating facilities, Nassan is pre-emi- 
nently distinguished. Its navigable waters combine more ele- 
ments of varied beauty than we often see crowded into the same 
number of square miles. In ordinary weather, when the bosom 
of the ocean gently rises and falls in graceful undulations, the 
eye searches in vain for some trace of the grand, the thrilling 
and the sublime. The waters ripple with a silvery and soothing 
melody. 

"The airs we feel, 
Which 'round us steal, 
Seem murmuring to the murmuring keel." 

CloiTds of satin and silver float in the soft air, the fitting dra- 
pery of slowly moving but invisible gods of idleness and repose; 
while upon the sea and its fairy isles, in unending variety, are 
seen in great profusion, the evidences of a hand divine, that 

169 



156 istfis 6F strMMSR. 

adorns with exquisite loveliness, all forms and every variety of 
matter which it touches. 

There being no mountains upon any of the Bahamas, and no 
high surrounding hills, those who seek for health and pleasure 
upon the water at Nassau, have very little to apprehend from 
sudden and dangerous gusts of wind during the visiting season. 
These, sometimes occur, but the Bahama winds blow with re- 
markable uniformity and steadiness. There is, at times, too 
much wind, but it is rarely unsafe to sail in Nassau harbor, on 
account of its strength, and we were only twice becalmed, and 
then only for a short time. On one of these occasions, we soon 
came in with the tide. 

The Nassau yachts, as a rule, have a good breadth of beam, 
are strong and staunch, and with competent boatmen at the 
helm, they are much safer than ocean steamers. They have no 
complicated machinery to get out of order, no large and infernal 
looking furnaces to threaten purgatorial fires in advance of the 
appointed time, and no high pressure steam boilers or drunken 
officials to blow one up. It is true, however, that the master of 
a Nassau pleasure boat is just as liable to be overcome vv^ith liquor 
as the officers of steamships, but they do not have bar rooms on 
board their yachts, and if sober when they take their passengers 
on board, it may be safely assumed that they will remain so until 
the return of the boat to her dock. 

It is reported that Captain Sampson, a few years ago, some- 
times when on shore, failed to put a sufficient quantity of water 
in his rum, or, to speak perhaps more charitably, occasionally, 
by mistake, put more rum in his water than was necessary to 
neutralize the effects of the unhealthy salts it contained when 
taken from Nassau wells, and that^ like his great namesake, when 
on a certain occasion his hair was cut too short, he was tempor- 
arily weakened and unmanned. 



But Sampson's good sense proved to be stronger than his ap- 
petite, and the native force of his character secured a very cred- 
itable victory for his higher moral nature, and vindicated the 
goodness and strength of his judgment. When sailing with him 
on one occasion, after we had delicately alluded to this subject, 
he said, — ''I ha'nt drinked no sperits since '76. I know'd it 
wouldn't do. Why, when I used to drink, I was 'fered to talk to 
the missuses — 'cause I 'fered they'd smell my breth. But now 
I isn't 'fered at all. I goes 'round 'em, and 'mong 'em, and to 
winchvardof'em, or any how — and none of 'em kan't smell no 
liker when Sampson talks to 'em, 'bout goen sailen in his boat." 

We have been informed that in Boston harbor several lives are 
lost every summer from the capsizing of pleasure boats; that 
Boston yachts are long and narrow, and that in their construc- 
tion, as well as in sailing them, safety is subordinated to speed. 
But here, surrounded by intricate channels, and the waters 
abounding with submerged rocks and reefs, where the vessels of 
commerce, in formidable numbers, are stranded, and the busi- 
ness of ''wrecking" is pursued by many of the islanders under 
licenses purchased of the government, we have yet to learn of 
an instance where a serious accident has ever happened to a 
pleasure boat. The " Triton " carries eight thousand ]30unds of 
iron ballast and draws five feet of water. It grounded once when 
we were on board of her, upon a bank of coral, and a ton of bal- 
last was thrown overboard to get her off, but Sampson declared 
such a thing never hapj)ened to the " Triton " before, and he 
would not have the affair known for fifty dollars. He was over- 
board in the water so long trying to get her off, and was so ex- 
cited and nervous about it, that, alas for the fast color of his 
ebony complexion, he fairly turned white. Aided by the friendly 
crew of a passing boat, the " Triton " was extricated from her 
difl&culty at last, and the diplomatic Sampson made all his pas- 

14 



1S8 ISLES of StfMMilft. 

sengers happy by a perfect shower of encomiums upon the noble 
and unexampled manner in which they " laughed at their calam- 
ity," declaring that never in his life had he before seen ladies 
and gentlemen behave so well. 

An old U. S. naval commander, (Capt. Fox), addressing our 
favorite yachtman one day, said: 

"When you go out with sailing parties and have ladies on 
board, why don't you take along your small boat, for, ballasted 
with 8,000 lbs. of iron, if the 'Triton' should upset she Avould 
go right straight to the bottom like a shot. In the United States 
navy they will not allow a boat to be ballasted with anything 
but water, so that it cannot sink. Now, with four tons of ballast 
on board, what would you do should your boat with its load of 
passengers upset?" 

With emphatic and graceful gestures and a flashing eye, Samp- 
son answered: 

" But do ' Triton ' karn't upset — 'tis impossible. Why I sails 
all round dese yere waters in all kinds 'er weather for mor'n ten 
years, and I knows what she ken do, and I tells yer der ' Triton ' 
karn't upset — kause I wont let 'er." 

" Well, Sampson, you think she'll not upset, and a great many 
men as experienced and capable of managing boats as you are, 
and equally confident, have been drowned at last. Now why 
don't you take your small boat along so that if an accident hap- 
pens, and you have ladies on board, they may be saved?" 

'^I say," replied Sampson, speaking with an energy and earn- 
estness with which a native deference, respect and politeness were 
singularly and pleasantly combined, '' I know'd what der Triton 
ken do; for many a time, when I ha'nt got no passengers, I goes 
all alone by myself and tries her in every place 'bout yese here 
waters, and I studies her^ and tries her, and lams what she ken 
do, and I tells yer — not to say as how I do'snt 'spect your opinion 



fACHTlNG. 169 

—I knows de Triton, and I knows she karn't upset — 'taint possa- 
ble — 'cause Sampson wont let her. Why, Sampson karn't 'ford 
ter have 'er upset — 'twould ruin him. I couldn't live. No; I 
keeps watch all der time; I keeps my eye on 'er; I doesn't 'pend 
on luffin' 'er up alone, but yer see — with one hand on her tiller, 
I hold the main-sheet in t'other hand on a bite, so I ken instantly 
shake der wind all out of 'er main-sail if I seed it coming nor 
furrer den dat house. And if I 'spects der wind any, I makes 
one man hold 'er jib sheet on a flying turn — 'cause e'en if I emp- 
ties 'er main-sheet, der wind in der jib mite upset her — no sah! 
I tells yer der Triton can't upset — 'cause Sampson wont let 'er. 
But I 'spects yer opinion, an' 'twont do no harm to take der small 
boat along — but no sah! she karnt upset." 

And Capt. Charley Mitchell, (now, we regret to say, deceased,) 
between whom and Sampson a friendly rivalry formerly existed, 
upon another occasion expressed equal confidence in the Frolic, 
(a center-board yacht which he sailed,) and in his ability to avoid 
serious accidents while prosecuting his vocation in water around 
the island of New Providence. ''Why," said he, ''now s'pose 
Mr. I., ye're way off heah, ever so far from yer home, with only 
a hundred dollars in yer pocket — wouldn't you be karful of dem 
hundred dollars? Wouldn't yer mind and study how yer sj)end 
'em? Well, now, der Frolic is for Mitchell dem hundred dollars. 
No, sah! Mitchell isn't gwine to lose his boat, 'cause he'd starve." 

It is pleasant at times, notwithstanding some increase of dan- 
ger, to sail outside the natural breakwaters of the harbor of Nas- 
sau, and cultivate a more intimate acquaintance with an ocean 
which has and requires great continents to restrain and confine 
it when tossed and maddened by the tempests, or when stirred 
to its profoundest depths by the hurricane. A little peril adds 
an agreeable condiment to prosaic life, and breaks a monotony 
which finally becomes oppressive even in an atmosphere that 



160 ISL13S Of Str'MMEfi., 

seems ever freighted with sensuous pleasures, and never stimulateyr 
to heroic deeds, or to hibors and duties which in cokler latitudes 
characterize all forms of life outside of the vegetable kingdom. 
We were therefore predisposed to respond favorably to the propo- 
sition of Sampson, when, npon the morning of the 20th of March, 
1879, the day the equinoctial storm arrives at the north, if it is 
on time, he proposed that, as the Avind was more lively than 
usual, a few gentlemen should put the Triton to the test as an 
ocean boat by going outside the bar. lie is always a ready and 
fluent speaker, but on this occasion ho seemed to have more and 
better wind than usual to fill the capacious sails of his eloquence. 
Like his great namesake, of biblical fame and memory, he accom- 
plishes great results with a " jaw-bone.'" 

"I don't want no ladies dis time," said he, " there's a leetle 
too much wind to take der ladies along. I jess want to shake all 
der reefs out of der Triton's sails and let her go. I'd like for 
once to show der gemmen what der Triton ken do." 

Half an hour afterwards two gentlemen and the author were 
seated in Sampson's boat, and flying down the harbor of Nassau 
under full sail. Amos, from Harbour Island, a colored man of 
much nautical experience in Bahama waters, and of more than 
average ability, was greatly complimented by the captain, because, 
without waiting to be told, he went quietly to Avork and prepared 
the yacht before crossing the bar for the washings he evidently 
anticipated she was destined to get, He lashed to the boat the 
anchor and the oars, put carpets and cushions away in the little 
forecastle, made fast every coil of rope, got ready for immediate 
use the large sponges which are here employed to keep boats dry, 
and brought out for the use of the passengers oil-cloth suits, more 
useful than ornamental, and sufiiciently capacious to keep the 
salt water on the outside of a man in case the ill-mannered waves, 
presuming too much on our very limited acquaintance, should 



TESTING THE TRITOK. 161 

persistently attempt to take possession of our temporary ''house 
and home." William, also from one of the outer islands, obeyed 
orders, and made himself generally useful. 

We were soon out upon the broad Atlantic, and Sampson, like 
the rider of a winning horse at a race, experienced a gratification 
he could not entirely conceal, as, with the gracefulness and seem- 
ing speed of a sea gull, his yacht joluckily met and mounted the 
high rolling billows, which we could not but remember had, in 
their angry moods, strewn with wrecks the neighboring shores. 
A portion of one of those wrecks was in sight, being all that re- 
mains of a blockade runner, v/hose captain took his steamer to 
the left instead of the right of Nassau lighthouse. Some claim 
the officers were all drunk; others say, ''it was a put up job;" 
but all the boatmen united in affirming, that, as a consequence, 
"boots and shoes were plenty on Hog Island " — those articles 
having constituted a part of her cargo. Certain it is, that hav- 
ing sailed out of Nassau harbor one afternoon, the vessel returned 
in the evening of the same day, and was beached. Sampson said, 
with an exultant chuckle, after alluding to the cargo scattered 
along the shore, that " der Cap'n mistake Nassau light for der 
' Hole in der Wall,' " (a well known light upon Abaco, nearly six- 
teen miles distant.) 

The larger waves moved towards us in stately grandeur, in a 
regular order of succession, as if marshaled and marching over 
the bosom of the ocean under the guidance and direction of some 
invisible god of the seas. After every nine smaller waves had 
passed by, and under us, the long liquid platoon was marked 
and bounded by a billow whose approach was watched with much 
interest, and with an exhilarating but peculiar |)leasure, as it 
Wonld often not only wash our forecastle and submerge our gun- 
nels, but drench us from head to foot, and make lively work for 
Wiiriani and his sponges. The pure ocean air, pleasantly cool 



163 tSLfiS OV SUMMER. 

and more than usually lively; the soft white clouds moving so 
majestically across the clear blue sky; the exquisite beauty of 
the islands and keys, and of the city of Nassau, which quietly 
rested upon the rocky hillside, spiced with an excitement pro- 
duced by a sail designed to demonstrate "what der Triton could 
do " in a free wind outside of the shelter which the natural break- 
waters of Nassau afford — all combined to give us a very high 
degree of exquisite and unalloyed pleasure. 

After we had sailed in a northerly direction out into the ocean 
to vindicate the truth of Sampson's claims in reference to the 
good qualities of the Triton in rough water, we sailed in an 
easterly or northeasterly direction along the windward side of 
Hog Island, crossed Silver Key bar, entered water that seemed as 
warm as any confined and heated by a July sun upon a northern 
shore — skirted the southern line of Silver Key — passed through 
''the Marine Garden," a region of submarine coral bowers of 
marvelous and wondrous beauty, situated between the east end 
of Hog Island and the west end of Athol Island, — then, turning 
to the west, we traversed the easterly portion of the harbor of 
Nassau, and were landed safely at the stone steps of the wharf 
which we had left some three hours before. The latter portion 
of our sail having been in waters somewhat sheltered, Sampson 
was better able to amuse us with a chapter or two taken fi-om the 
volume of his personal experience. 

The account he gave of his visit in the summer of 1ST8 to the 
city of New York was particularly interesting. The impression 
made upon his wondering and astonished mind, graphically and 
faithfully described, furnished an entertainment of the most droll 
and comical character. Q,uick to see, sensitive to feel, and gifted 
to describe with a genius and eloquence all his own, this unlettered 
and untraveled negro, mounted upon any northern platform, 
could not have failed to convulse and bring down the house. 



SAMPSOJiT IK KEW YORK CITY. l63 

Kerer before had he left the peaceful quiet of this little island 
world. Passing over nearly a thousand miles of a solitude such 
as only the immense, pathless, treeless wastes of the ocean can 
produce, he landed at last in that immense, seething, boiling, 
noisy whirlpool of intensified human life — the great city of New 
York. Afraid of being cheated — afraid of being robbed — afraid 
of being run over — afraid of being, in a hundred ways new to 
him, killed — not merely a stranger in a nevt^ land, but an ignorant, 
semi-tropical, Bahama African in a babel and pandemonium far 
surpassing anything his imagination had ever conceived, he seemed 
for a time to have every particle of life taken out of him. The 
ferryboats, constantly passing and repassing loaded with jDassen- 
gers — the immense labyrinth of streets and avenues, stretching 
away in every direction farther than he could see — the great, 
elaborate and expensive buildings of every description — the street 
railroads, and particularly the vast crowds that made it necessary 
to carry people on elevated railroads over the heads of those rush- 
ing in a ceaseless tide below — and the loud, harsh, deafening and 
infernal mingling of noises that ever ascended day and night — 
all wonderfully impressed him, and revealed a much more new 
and strange world to him than his own Bahamas did to Columbus 
nearly four hundred years ago. He got lost in New York seven 
times the first -day after his arrival; paid ten cents to go to Cen- 
tral Park, and, after a long ride, he was astonished (and almost 
scared at the seeming witchcraft) to find himself at the precise 
place he started from. " Why," said he, "der ting had turned 
round and I know'd nothing 'bout it, and I had to pay my ten 
cents over agin." He still retains a vivid impression of the de- 
licious flavor of northern strawberries, but ate so many he de- 
clared that at night '' dey confused " his stomach. His sea voyage 
seasoned to his taste everything he ate. " Why," said he, 'Td 
give more for jess wun mutton chop like as dat I had in New 



164 ISLES OF atlMMEfi. 

York, den for all der mutton in Nassau." Though much in- 
terested in, be was glad to escape from New York, and affirmed 
that he did not get the deafening din of its horrible noises out 
of his head for more than two weeks after he left that city. : 
For two or three hours after we landed, we were busy at times 
wiping the crystals of salt out of our eyes, which were occasioned 
by the waves outside of Nassau light endeavoring to take posses- 
sion of our boat. As we recall this rather foolhardy sail, it brings 
to mind the anecdote of the newly-converted negro who was per- 
suaded to be baptized by immersion in the ocean, and having' 
accidently slipped from the grasp of the officiating clergyman 
while his woolly head was under water, declared, so soon as he 
could get the sea out of his eyes and mouth — ''Some gcmman 
ktim nare losnig a good nigger by dis yere cussed foolishness. " 

Man is a gregarious animal, and when circumstances bring to- 
gether a large number of persons who are mostly strangers to 
each other, they soon feel the influence of some subtle social law, 
and form into groups. The foolish walk in company over tlie' 
paths of folly in search of pleasure. Here music binds togetlier 
with her tuneful strings and harmonious cords, those whose 
hearts are attuned to melody. There, sparkling wit, and amus- 
ing story, and clever anecdote, flash and scintillate from the 
crystalizing centers of another happy group. The staid, sedate, 
practical, matter-of-fact pcojole, in their little corner, meditate 
and moralize upon the solid and substantial things of life, and 
mourn over the fast and foolish ways and the constantly increas- 
ing extravagance of the present degenerate age. Some are soli-' 
tary, and get all the light and heat they seem to need by burning 
oil in their own little lamps. 

We cannot explain how it happened, but at Nassau we gener- 
ally found ourselves surrounded by congenial people. "We fre- 
quently speculated upon what we had lost by not having known 



THE gazelle's LOG. 165 

theci before, and wondered, when we finally separated, if we 
should ever meet in this world again. 

The yachting circles to which we were attached, form clusters 
of unfading flowers in the garden of memory. They were com- 
posed of persons as enthusiastic as we were in their expressions 
of delight when viewing the exquisite beauties of the Bahama 
isles and waters. Some were successful merchants from the 
cities of the great west, who had run away from business, and 
left all their heavy cares behind them. They seemed as gay and 
sportive as children at play. Light-hearted and joyous, they 
winged with a peculiar pleasure the flying hours. A log was 
kept, and it was the source of much amusement. Its keeper, 
being the head of the log, was voted to be, without any inten- 
tional disrespect to the turtles, a loggerhead. Many wandering 
ideas and gay fancies were shot on the wing, captured, and em- 
balmed in its pages. It contained much entirely new matter, 
which never had been before and never will be again added to 
the wide domain of letters. 

Several portable mills ground out upon the water detached 
stanzas of machine poetry. It was soon suspected that some of 
aur party, when preparing to enter upon the voyage of life, had 
made mistakes, and gotten on board the wrong boats. Teas and 
not tragedies, sugars and not songs, pork instead of poetry, had 
occupied their time and engrossed their thoughts, to the great 
loss of themselves and the world. 

, A dignified, courtly gentleman, who, several years before, had 
crossed the dividing line which runs mid- way between youth and 
old age, and in whose bright and pleasant eyes humor was lurk- 
ing in ambush, on one of our sailing excursions perpetrated the 
following: 

We Venture in the gay Gazelle, 
Because with Amos all is well, 
But what may happen none can tell. 



166 ISLES OF SUMME3R. 

Instantly, upon his giving utterance to the last word of the 
last line, a lady added as a refrain or snapper, — *'my mudder !" 
borrowing it from a tenderly filial poem which little Sankey 
sometimes gave us, standing in a chair in the court of the hotel. 
It would have brought down the house had there been one. 

This caused the crank of another mill to revolve, and the fol- 
lowing stanza was thereupon ground out: 

Who learned us all this much to tell, 
While sailing in the gay Gazelle, 
And o'er us came this magic spell ? 
My mudder. 

After the laughter and applause had sufficiently subsided, a 
third stanza was added by still another of our happy group, as 
our yacht glided before the Avind. 

To landsmen all we say, farewell ! 

Your troubled hearts you now may quell, 

With Capt. Amos all is well ; 

My mudder. 

A lady contributed in pencil the following, which was read by 
the keeper of the Log: 

A POEM. Canto I. 

It was in breezy, blustering March 

That we, a jolly crew, 
Went sailing in the gay Gazelle 

Upon the waters blue. 

To be continued. 

This literary gem was deemed all that could be expected in 
such a climate as the result of mill \\'ork for one forenoon. 



YACHTI^iTG DIVEKSIOIS'S. 167 

The loggerhead, meanwhile, had not been idle, and occasion- 
ally added a stanza to complete the literary bill of fare. We. 
give them connectedly. 

Like mountain lake— as smooth and calm — 
The waves are hushed in dreamy sleep, 

While perfumes float from isles of balm, 
And mm-muring voices from the deep. 

We float like sea-birds on the tide, 

We tread the deep with muffled keel, 
Like spirits of the air we glide, 

And something of their rest we feel. 

Like sunset isles in western skies, 

Where viewless spirits joyous flit, 
Before us lie the coral isles, 

And happy angels, wingless, sit. 

When weary toilers picture heaven, 

Unending rest is their ideal ; 
That boon to coral isles is given, 

Here soon we learn that heaven is real. 

On some of these excursions we took along Thompson's " Cas- 
tle of Indolence," and when the wind was not too strong, it was 
read aloud and very greatly appreciated. It seemed as if its 
author must have visited the Bahamas before composing the 
poem, his pictures so perfectly mirror what one there ever sees 
and feels. Take, for example, the following : 

" A pleasing land of drowsy head it was, 

Of dreams that wave before the half -shut eye, 

And of gay castles in the clouds that pass. 
Forever flushing 'round a summer sky ; 

There ekes the soft delights that witchingly 
Instil a wanton softness tlu-ough the breast." 



168 ISLES OF SUMMEK.. 



While sailing in tlie Bahama waters, the famous sargasso. or 
gulf weed, cannot fail to attract attention. It is constantly in 
sight, and in that portion of the ocean world, is 

" Ever driftiog, drifting, drifting 
On the shifting 
Currents of the restless main." 

Columbus encountered it upon his first voyage to the new 
world, a few days after he left the Canary islands'. The frequent 
mention which he makes of it in his journal is evidence that it 
abounded then as now. He also noticed the crabs that it con- 
tained — for little Crustacea, it seems, have long been accustomed 
to have their domicils in these fragile and floating abodes, which, 
no doubt, withstand the violence of an angry ocean better than 
the strongest ships of oak and iron that man can make. This 
weed is sometimes encountered in sucli quantities as to consti- 
tute what has not been inappropriately termed '^sea gardens." 

The following very interesting and suggestive description, we 
copy from Kingsley's "At Last:" 

" One glance at a bit of the weed as it floats past, shows that 
it is like no fucus of our shores, or anything we ever saw before. 
The difference in looks is indefinable in words, but clearenough. 
One sees in a moment that the sargassos, of which there are sev- 
eral species on tropical shores, are a genus of themselves and by 
themselves; and a certain awe may, if the beholder be at once 
scientific and poetical, come over him at the first sight of thi^ 
famous and unique variety thereof, which has lost ages since the 
habit of growing on rock or sea bottom, but propagates itself 
forever floating; and feeds among its branches a whole family of 
fish, crabs, cuttlefish, zoophytes and mollusks, which, like the 
plant that shelters them, are found no where else in the world. 
And that awe, springing from the ''scientific use of the imagi- 



THE GULF WEED. 169 

nation," would be increased if he recollected the theory— not 
altogether impossible, that this sargasso (and possibly some of 
the animals which cling to it), marks the sight of an Atlantic 
continent sunk long ages since; and that, transformed by the 
necessities of life from a rooting to a floating plant, 

"Still it remembers its august abodes," 

and wanders 'round and 'round as if in search of the rocks where 
it once grew." 

" When fresh out of the water it resembles not a sea weed so 
much as a sprig of a willow leaved shrub, burdened with yellow 
berries, large and small; for every broken bit of it seems growing 
and throwing out ever new berries and leaves — or what for want 
of a better word, must be called leaves in a sea weed. For it 
must be remembered that the frond of a seaweed is not merely 
leaf, but root also; that it not only breathes air, but feeds on 
water; and that even the so-called root by which a seaweed holds 
to the rock is really only an anchor, holding mechanically to the 
stone, but not deriving, as the root of a land plant Avould, any 
nourishment from it, therefore it is that to grow while uprooted 
and floating, though impossible to most land plants, is easy 
enough to many seaweeds, and especially to the sargasso." 

The expense of yachting at Nassau is generally apportioned 
per capita, and the charges of the boatmen are quite moderate, 
so that a great deal of enjoyment is thereby secured for a very 
little money. Although there is a good circulation of air on 
shore, the change to that of the harbor is, when the hot sun is 
well up, a decided improvement, and outside of the barrier keys 
the wind over the ocean seemed more strongly medicated aud 
tonic. For sanitary reasons, therefore, we would strongly rec- 
ommend Nassau visitors to spend a portion of each pleasant day 

15 



170 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

upon the water. There is no part of our Nassau experiences 
which, when far away, gives us more happiness in the retrospect; 
and often 

The white-winged boats with sable crew, 

The fleecy clouds that draped the skies, 
The gales of health that constant blew, 

The waters striped with brilliant dies, 
The cradle-waves that ever rocked 

'Gainst far off cloud-embroidered wall, 
The skies whose blue the deep sea mocked, 

The sunny hearts that gilded all — 
Return with e'en an added power 
To brighten many an idle hour. 



CHAPTER XL 

Nassau as a Sanitarium. Its Mild and Generally Salubrious Climate. Its 
Freedom from Cold Waves of A ir, and Cold Currents of Water. Its Vulner- 
able Points. No Absorbing and Filtering Sands. Impurities Endangering 
its Water Supply, and Poisoning the Air. A High Degree of Heat in the 
Sun. Diseases upon the Islands. Small but Crowded Human Ant Hills. 
The Yellow Fever in Nassau in 1880. The Pestilence in other Neighboring 
Cities at Other Times. The Angel of Health Rides Upon Hurricanes. Cleans- 
ing the City. Constant Vigilance and Activity of Nassau's Board of Health 
Essential to its Safety. Who may Hope for Relief and Cure in Nassau. Not 
the Best Place in ichich either to be very Sick or to Die. Frost a Factor in the 
Problem of Civilization. Human Development and Progress Dependent upon 
Ice. Sea Bathing all Winter. 

" The breath of a celestial clime, 
As if from heaven's wide open gates did flow 
Health and refreshment on the world below." — Beyant. 

If Nassau has any great value to the American people, it is as 
a health resort. It is claimed to be the " Great Sanitarium of the 
Western World." Much that is written and published upon this 
subject is inspired by personal interest, and in such cases a one- 
sided and warped presentation of the facts of the case is a natural 
consequence. Many confidently express crade opinions, hastily 
formed, and bottomed upon a few ill-digested surface facts, and 
thus act the part of blind leaders of the blind. We have strongly 
felt the great responsibility which rests upon those who volunteer 
their advice or opinion in matters so important. 

It is not without a good deal of hesitation that we publish the 
result of our diagnosis of the Bahamas. We made the best of 

171 



172 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

our limited opportunities, and we have endeavored to collect and 
decide upon the facts with judicial fairness. We do not ask the 
reader to adopt our views, but only to take our testimony for 
what it may seem to be worth, and to consider it in connection 
with that of others whose opinions may be entitled to more 
weight. 

The climate of the Bahamas, in its normal condition, seemed 
to us fairly described in the lines we have quoted at the com- 
mencement of this chapter, although they were written of the 
mountain air of Western Massachusetts. But when the poet 
declares — (we substitute the word "ocean" for "^mountain") — 
that 

"Suns cannot make 
In this pure air the plague that walks unseen ; 
The ocean wind, that faints not in thy ray, 
Sweeps the blue stream of pestilence away," 

he states what cannot be truthfully said of Nassau or its suburbs, 
and what is not probably true of any of the thickly inhabited 
portions of the globe. 

Nothing is easier than to poison the purest air. Without con- 
stant care and vigilance, the waste matter — the sewage incident 
to permanent abodes — will become any and everywhere, (the re- 
gions of unending frost alone excepted,) the prolific source of 
disease and death. Through window and door, through crack 
and crevice the pestilence will enter. Nature affixes penalties 
to her sanitary laws which execute themselves. The code of 
health which she has established is learned at a fearful cost in 
sick rooms, in cemeteries, and in mortuary records. In pushing 
our inquiries into the sanitary conditions of Nassau, it will not 
do to look only at her ocean winds, ''the breath of a celestial 
clime." We must examine ''the earth, and the waters under 



the earth." It is proverbial that there maybe "death in the 
pot;" but we should never forget that it is equally true that there 
is often death in the pitcher and the pail; and good jihysicians 
in our day, when a, malignant disease is developed, immediately 
examine the character and condition of the water supply. 

The reader must, in regard to this question of health, keep 
ever in mind those peculiarities of the Bahama islands which we 
have endeavored to describe. Perfectly shielded from the cold 
by the Gulf stream, which throws its warm, wide, watery arm 
around them on tlie west and north — a shield which the frost 
king finds absolutely impenetrable — it is ensured an atmosphere 
of unending summer. Winter, in our sense of the word, is liter- 
ally unknown; while, at the same time, the islands are exempt 
from the dry, scorching heat, which banishes the white race from 
tropical regions in many parts of the world. The polar currents, 
aqueous and aerial, are completely transformed when they en- 
counter the Gulf Stream, and all the discomfort is quickly taken 
out of them, so that the Bahamas, languidly reclining in the lap 
of summer, are slightly but agreeably refreshed by the coldest 
winds that ever reach them from the north and west. 

It is in this that their superiority as a winter resort for the 
American peo^Dle over the states of the Gulf consists. Uioon the 
main land, the north winds make a clear sweep to the Gulf of 
Mexico. There is nothing to obstruct their course. The valley 
of the Mississijopi seems to have been scooped out to facilitate 
their progress. With the Appellachian chain of mountains on 
one side, and the Gulf Stream on the other, a great highway is 
formed for Boreas over both the land and water sides of our At- 
lantic coast. And he travels over it in his icy chariot altogether 
too frequently for the health and comfort of those who leave their 
northern homes to search for summer in either of the states of 
the south. 



m 



ISLtlS OF StJMMES. 



The remarkable uniformity of the temperature of Kassau will 
appear from an examination of the following meteorological table 
copied from the official report of Gov. Eawson for 1864, page 14, 
compiled from the records kept at Nassau's Military Observatory, 
It gives the "Mean. of Daily Observations on Week Days for 
Ten Years, from 1855 to 1864." 



Months. 


Thermometer 
at 9 A. M. 


Wind at 9 a. m. 


Rainfall 

on 
Ground 


Max, 


Med. 


Min. 


Four Chief Points in Order of 
Prevalence. 


in 
Month. 
Inches. 


Jan. 

Feb. 

Mar. 

April 

May 

June 

July 

Aug. 

Sept. 

Oct. 

Nov. 

Dec. 


75 
76 
78 
81 
84 
88 
88 
88 
86 
83 
79 
77 


70 
71 
73 
75 
78 
81 
83 
81 
81 
77 
74 
73 


66 
66 
66 

68 

71 

74 

75 . 

75 

75 

73 

70 

69 


K E. 
N. E. 

E. 
N. E. 
N. E. 
S. E. 

E. 

E. 

E. 
N. E. 
N. E. 
N. E. 


E. 
E. 

S. E. 

E. 
S. E. 

E. 
S. E. 
S. E. 
N. E. 

E. 

E. 

E. 


S. E. 
S. E. 
N. E. 

S. 

E. 
N. E. 

S. 

S. 
S. E. 
S. E. 

E. 
S. E. 


N. 

S. 

N. 
S. E. 

S. 

S. 
N. E. 
N. E. 

N. 

N. 
S. E. 

N. 


2.4 

2.4 

4.5 

3.4 

6.9 

6.4 

6.5 

6.7 

5.2 

7.4 . 

2.8 

3.4 


Average 


83 


76 


71 










4.6 



From the foregoing and from an examination of other special 
tables contained in his report, Gov. Eawson draws the follow- 
ing conclusions: 

1. Baroyneter. That the mean height of the barometer at 
Nassau is exactly thirty inches. 

2. That it attains its greatest height in the three months from 
December to February, and is lowest in October and November, 



3HETE0B0L0GICAL. 175 

3. That there is a constant difference in the observations 
taken in the morning and afternoon, averaging for the whole 
period a decrease of 0.05 height in the afternoon. 

4. That the difference between the average of maximum and 
minimum observations in the ten years has fluctuated between 
0.25 and 0.46. 

Thermometer. 1. That the four months, June to Septem- 
ber, are the hottest, and of nearly equal temperature, viz. ; 88°. 

2. That January, February and March are the three coldest 
months, and of nearly equal temperature, viz. : 66°. 

3. That the greatest maximum heat exceeds the average heat 
by not more than 12°, and that the greatest mimimum falls short 
of it 10°. The extreme variation, therefore, is 22°. 

Rainfall. 1. That the chief yearly rainfall is from May to 
October, and is heaviest in October. During these six months 
it amounted to forty-four inches, and during the remaining six 
months to nineteen inches; and that the greatest rainfall does 
not correspond with the greatest pressure of wind. 

Wind. 1. That the highest winds prevail in November and 
January, and the average from October 1st, March inclusive, 
greatly exceeds the average of the remaining six months, and 
that there is little difference between morning and afternoon. 

2. That north-easterly and easterly winds are the most preva- 
lent from September to February, during which months they 
blow during one-half or two-thirds of the whole time. North- 
erly winds seldom blow except during those months, and then 
only for three days in a month. From June to August, the 
average is less than a day. Easterly and south-easterly winds 
prevail chiefly from March to August. South-western are most 
prevalent in February and March, to the extent of two to three 
days in a month; westerly winds from February to April to the 
extent only of one to one and a-half days in a month, and dur- 



176 



ISLES OF SUMMER. 



ing the rest of the year of less than a day monthly; northwesters 
from November to March, about two days in a month. Their 
relative frequency throughout the year is shown in the following 
statement of the percentage proportion of days in a year, during 
which they prevailed at 9 a. m. 



North, 7.2 per cent. 

North-east, 36.3 " 

East, 24.4 " 

South-east,.... 18.6 " 



South, 11.0 per cent. 

South-west, 5.0 " 

West, 3.3 " 

North-west, 5.3 " 



The following tables are copied from official reports: 
METEOROLOGICAL TABLE FOR 1878. 





THERMOMETER. 


RAINFALL. 


Months. 


Max. in 
shade 

at 
9 a. m. 


Min. in 
shade 

at 
9 a. m. 


Max. in 

sun 

in 24 

hours. 


Mean 

at 
3 p. M. 


3 S 
'S a 


S b 
'A S 




January, 

February, 

March, 


76.5 
78.0 
82.5 
82.2 
86.5 
89.8 
89.5 
88.8 
87.2 
83.5 
79.0 
" 77.5 


61.0 
63.5 
65.3 
70.0 
75.5 
71.0 
74.5 
78.8 
78.0 
75.5 
71.0 
65.8 


140.0 
146 
149.5 
150.3 
156.5 
154 
159.0 
157.9 
153.0 
153.0 
157.5 
155.0 


73.3 
73.9 

76.7 
80.4 
81.8 
84.0 
85.8 
85.8 
84.2 
81.1 
76.1 
73.8 


5.15 
7.05 
2.36 
3.19 
7.28 
6.56 
6.05 
9.25 
7.15 
7.37 
2.84 
1.38 


16 
11 

7 

8 

7 
19 
20 
18 
24 .. 
13 
10 

7 


1.10 
3.00 
1.05 




1.00 


]y[ay 


2.40 




1.60 


Julv 


1.88 


August, 


2.13 


September, 

October, 

November, 

December, 


1.60 
4.50 
1.31 
0.55 


Sums 


1001.0 


848.8 


1830.7 


956.9 


65.64 


159 


31.03 






Means, 


83.5 


70.7 


152.6 


79.7 


5.47 


13 


1.75 







METEOROLOGICAL. 
METEOROLOGICAL TABLE FOR 1879. 



177 





THEEMOMETER. 


RAINFALL. 


Months 


Max. in 
shade 

at 
9 a. m. 


Min. in 

shade 

at 

9 A. M. 


Max. in 

pun 

in 24 

hours. 


Min. in 
sun 
at 

3 p. M. 


k5 




Max. 

fall 

ill 24 

hours. 


ft 


January, 


77.0 
76.5 
78-5 
82.8 
83.8 
85.5 
88.0 
88.5 
87.5 
85.0 
81.5 
78.2 


61.0 

64.2 
69.5 
73.5 
70.5 
74.0 
71.2 
77.0 
70 
74.5 
G6 5 
67.0 


145.0 
148.0 
153.5 
154.0 
155.5 
155.0 
157.0 
157.0 
153.5 
153 
148.0 
150.5 


73.6 

74.4 
75.6 
78.8 
80.5 
82.4 
85.3 
86.4 
84.6 
81.9 
77.2 
76.6 


0.92 
1.29 

2.84 
0.42 
3.85 
12.77 
7.43 
9.85 
8.02 
6.50 
7.98 
1.60 


6 

8 

6 

5 
13 
14 
18 
13 
20 
18^ 

6 
11 


0.41 
0.95 
2.45 
0.20 
0.90 
5.37 
1.80 
3.11 
2.27 
1.60 
7.41 
0.95 


28 


February, 


11 


March, 


14 




3 


jVIav 


9 


June, 


26 


July, 


30 


August, 


16 


September, 


12 


October, 


35 


November, 


7 


December, 


1 






Sums, 


992.8 


839.1 


183.0 


957.3 


63.47 


138.} 


27.42 








Means, 


82.7 


69.9 


152.5 


79.8 


5.29 


11 


2.28 









Gov. Eobinson vouches for the correctness of these tables by 
inserting them in his reports for the colonial Blue Books. 

The weather was so charming when we were at Nassau in 1879, 
the thermometer at 7 A. m., week after week, marking sub- 
stantially the same temperature, with no storms, and only an 
occasional shower, that Capt. Fox believed that we were favored 
with weather exceptionally good, and through the kindness of 
the librarian of the Nassau public library, he obtained from the 
Nassau military observatory the following table, showing the 
highest and lowest temperature and the rainfall at the end of 
every week, for six months, from November to April, both in- 
clusive, for the years 1878 and 1879. 



178 



ISLES OF SUMMER. 



1.S77. 


1S7S- 






Thermometer. 






Thermometer. 


Week Ending 


Rainfall. 






Week Ending 


Rainfall. 










Dog. 


Deg. 






Deg. 


Deg. 


Nov. 3 


.12 


90 


72 


Nov. 2 


.54 


87 


71 


10 


3.98 


99 


71 


9 


.19 


81 


67 


17 


.49 


84 


65 


16 


2.44 


82 


64 


24 


.24 


82 


66 


23 


.11 


82 


65 


Dec. 1 


.80 


85 


61 


30 


.10 


85 


66 


8 


.19 


85 


67 


Dec. 7 


.68 


82 


62 


15 


.00 


78 


65 


14 


.55 


81 


65 


22 


.20 


78 


67 


21 


.13 


82 


65 


29 


1.26 


83 


61 


28 


.02 


82 


63 


1S78_ 


1S79. 


Jan. 5 


.00 


80 


56 


Jan. 4 


.00 


83 


62 


12 


1.50 


82 


61 


11 


.03 


81 


62 


19 


2.12 


84 


59 


18 


.05 


85 


62 


26 


.32 


82 


59 


25 


.84 


83 


58 


Feb. 2 


1.13 


81 


59 


Feb. 1 


.00 


74 


71 


9 


1.00 


81 


59 


8 


.03 


74 


64 


16 


2.19 


85 


62 


15 


1.09 


74 


68 


23 


1.44 


83 


60 


22 


.02 


76 


66 


Mar. 2 


2.42 


84 


61 


29 


.15 


75 


66 


9 


.40 


83 


63 


Mar. 8 


.10 


72 


69 


16 


.04 


89 


66 


15 


2.50 


75 


73 


23 


1.87 


84 


64 


22 


.24 


76 


73 


30 


.05 


89 


63 


29 


.00 


78 


76 


April 6 


.56 


89 


62 


April 5 


.20 


80 


74 


13 


1.20 


83 


61 


12 


.00 


79 


74 


20 


.31 


86 


65 


19 


.15 


83 


74 


27 


.22 


85 


67 


£6 


.02 


78 


73 



There are serious discrepancies between the tabulated reports 
which we are unable to reconcile or explain, and we give them 
to our readers as we find them. It appears that the temperature 
at Nassau from November, 1877, to May, 1878, was not very dif- 



METEOROLOGtOAL. 179 

ferent from that of the same months in 1878 and '79; but the 
rainfall during the same months in 1878 and '79, aggregated only 
10.18 inches, while during the corresponding period in 1877 and 
'78, it amounted to 24.05 inches. Indeed, during our visit in 
1879, there was so little rain that a consequent failure of the 
fruit crop was apprehended. The average rainfall for the ten 
years coyered by Gov. Eawson's summarized meteorological table, 
during corresponding months, is 1G.9 inches. It thus appears 
that the Nassau weather from November, 1877, to May, 1878, 
was very exceptionally wet, while during the next following cor- 
responding period the weather was exceptionally dry. 

While at Nassau in 1879, Ave were accustomed to daily observe 
the thermometer and barometer, and a pencil meteorological 
record upon the white wall of the hotel court was made by a very 
intelligent and reliable gentleman from Canada, every morning 
at 7 o'clock. The unvarying steadiness of the temperature and 
atmospheric pressure, seemed so incredible to some of the guests, 
that, half in earnest and half in jest, they declared that the ther- 
mometer and barometer had been ''fixed up and doctored." I 
give the state of the thermometer at 7 a. m,, for each day, from 
February 1st, to March 12th, inclusive: 

1879—68, 67, 63, 64, 66, 68, 72, 77, 70, 70, 71, 70, 71, 70, 69, 
68, 69, 71, 70, 69, 65, 65, 68, 70, 69, 70, 72, 72, 70, 69, 68, 69, 
70, 69, 70, 70, 70, 70, 70, 71 degrees. For the four last days, at 
two p. M., the thermometer stood at 75, 74, 74, 75 degrees, and 
generally the difference between seven a. m. and two p. m. was 
very small in the shade. The barometer varied but a trifle from 
thirty inches. 

But in the noon-day sun, especially in the narrow streets lead- 
up from the water, over the hard, white limestone, and between 
the high white-washed stone walls, the heat is very excessive, 
find, but for the breeze that constantly blows from off the water, 



1§6 -istfis 61? srMMieft. 

it would be too miicli for any bat salamanclcrs and Congo negroes. 
This side of the picture is seldom given to the public. The 
tables I have copied from Gov. Eobinson's reports are a marked 
exception in this particular, to Avhicli the reader is referred. It 
is easy, however, to avoid exposure at mid-day, and to take one's 
rides or walks in the morning or in the latter part of the after- 
noon. While yachting, little inconvenience is experienced from 
this cause, as it is customary to take along a supply of umbrellas 
to assist the sails in throwing shadows upon tlie passengers. The 
water is, without exception, of a most agreeable temperature, 
and the tireless wind, that with remarkable constanc}^, ruffles its 
surface, while leaving a tawny and enduring impress of its most 
welcome caresses, is freighted with the grateful benisons, uttered 
or unexpressed, of all who feel its cooling and rejuvenating in- 
fluences. The simile, ''as fickle as the wind," seemed there to 
have little applicability. 

Writing from beneath the shade of one of her noble moss draped 
live oaks, at Mandarin, upon the right bank of the St. John's 
river, in Florida, the gifted author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, speak- 
ing of Florida, says in her " Palm Leaves:" 

''Sudden changes from heat to cold are the besetting sin of 
this fallen world. It is probably one of the consequences of 
Adam's fall, which we are not to get rid of till we get to the land 
of pure delights. It may, however, comfort the heart of visitors 
to Florida to know that if the climate here is not in this respect 
just what they would have, it is about tlie best there is going." 

If the word "about," in the last sentence quoted, is used in 
the sense of "near to,''^ then it is strictly correct, for the climate 
of Florida is "near to," (being only two days sail from) that of 
the Bahamas. Whatever may be said to the discredit of these 
islands, they are certainly not chargeable with that "besetting 
sin of this fallen world " to which Mrs. Stowe refers. 



While no one can be any more sure in Nassau than he is at 
home, or anywhere else, of escaping an exceptionally wet, and 
to that extent disagreeable, Avinter, he can rely with great confi- 
dence upon having there, night and day, an atmosphere of a 
pleasant and uniform summer temperature. 

It is difficult for a native and untraveled Bahamian to appre- 
ciate what is written at the north about ''the domestic hearth," 
and ''cheerful fire-side." As poets do not confine themselves 
exclusively to the truth, but use their "poetic license," the Ba- 
hamians naturally deem Longfellow's lines the out-cropping of 
a wild fancy when he sings: 

"Each man's chimney is his golden milestone ; 
Is the central point from which he measures every distance, 
Through the gateways of the world around him." 

Certain it is, there are few such "milestones" in Nassau. 

Persons who, for any reason, find it necessary to avoid the 
cold, damp winds and storms of the North, will find at Nassau 
a climate that fully fills the measure of their wants from the 
middle of November to the middle of April. But temperature 
and clear skies are not the only points to be considered in deter- 
mining the question of the importance of Nassau as "a great 
sanitarium," and we have therefore extended our observations 
and pushed our inquiries in other directions. 

The drinking water, the drainage, the existence and observance 
of sanitary regulations, the topography and condition of the ad- 
jacent back country, as well as the quality and direction of the 
winds that pass over it, are all important factors in the problem 
of health, and should be carefully examined and critically con- 
sidered. 

It is just here that Nassau's most vulnerable points are discov- 
ered, and, but for the superior sanitary arrangements of the Royal 

Ifi 



183 ISLES OF STTMMEE. 

Victoria Hotel, tliey would be much more damaging to tlie place 
as a health resort. Wells and cisterns, in the absence of sand, 
are sunk in the soft, porous, limestone rock, in the yicinity of 
cesspools and privy yaults, so that the water they contain can 
hardly fail to become more or less unwholesome. In many wells 
the water is said to rise and fall with the tide, but Avhether its 
quality is impaired by sea Avater Ave are not informed. There 
being no general sewerage system, the surface rock is likely to 
become saturated Avith the Avaste and effete matter that is suifered 
to accumulate around hiiman habitations AA'here the climate dis- 
inclines to exertion, and exhalations may be expected to arise 
therefrom, Avhich Avill jeopardise health and life. 

The colored people who are croAvded together in the suburbs 
of Nassau, pay little, if any regard to nature's sanitary laws, and 
apparently conform to fcAv of the conditions of healthy human 
existence. While they live in the open air during the day, they 
at night are croAvded together in the one or two rooms of their 
little cabins, from Avhich the outside air is religiously excluded 
by closed doors and Avooden shutters. Perhaps they have learned 
by experienoe the necessity of thus excluding the damp and 
poisoned air that rests upon the Ioav, Avet lands of the interior of 
this island. Tlieir poverty denies to them the advantages of a 
generous diet of varied food which is everywhere within the reach 
of honest labor in the States. 

That the seeds of disease, at least during the night, iloat in 
the air above the sAvamps and lagoons of the central portions of 
the island of Ncav Providence, is apparent to any thoughtful ob- 
server who either crosses it or sees it from any of the neighboring 
hills. The germs of sickness existing there are never destroyed 
or rendered torpid by frost. In the mild, soft, damp air, disease 
is present, and often dispenses his fevers with a liberal hand, as 
the official records and statistics clearly demonstrate. Consump- 



FNSAKITART COKDITIOKS. 183 

tion also, upon a galloping steed, rides in the suburbs of Nassau 
with an unchecked rein to his goal — the portal of death. It is 
possible for leprosy to lurk in the dense chaparral of low lands, 
and under the thick mangro groves that, with living arches and 
festoons, beautify and adorn the miniature islands that rise out 
of the shallow waters of the brackish and stagnant lakes. 

The city of Nassau, as we have shown, is, in a sanitary point 
of view, very favorably situated. Bottomed upon a rock of a 
porous nature, which dips towards the harbor, and speedily ab- 
sorbs or carries off the heaviest rain-falls, facing the north and 
skirting the sea, having within its limits no low and wet lands, 
the prevailing winds come to it directly from the ocean laden 
with refreshment and health. We examined the annual medical 
reports of the surgeon connected with the military department 
at Nassau for eleven years, from 1867 to 1878. Only that of 
1873 gave statistics of the wind. From that report it appeared 
that during the year 1873 the wind blew from the south at nine 
o'clock A . M. only three times — once in June and twice in Novem- 
ber — and at three o'clock p. m. only once during the entire year, 
and that was in November. The report states that in 1873 the 
wind blew from the north-east on 175 days, at nine A. m,, and 
from the south-east 111 days, and that at three p. m. it was north- 
east 185 days, and south-east 121 days; while it blew from the 
west only two days. During the ten years covered by Grov. Raw- 
son's table, which we have quoted, the wind from the south is 
stated to have averaged eleven days in a hundred. The Avind 
was from the south very rarely Avhile Ave were at Nassau in 1879, 
but it atoned for its long intervals of absence by being very sul- 
try, debilitating, and exceedingly disagreeable. As it sweeps 
over the low, wet surface of the center of the island, Ave believe 
it unfavorable to health, although the distance is measured by a 
very few miles. While we Avere at Nassau in 1880, the wind was 



164 ISLSS Oi' StJMMEtl. 

more frequently from the soutli and the weather was, as in the 
States, exceptionally hot, and for that reason Nassau was much 
less attractive. 

The Royal Victoria Hotel is provided with tanks for the stor- 
ing of rain-water, which are said to have a capacity of 300,000 
gallons. The water is exclusively used for drinking and culi- 
nary purposes, and it always appeared to be of most excellent 
quality. Ice, from the state of Maine, is ]3rocured under a con- 
tract which the government made for the supply of the city, of 
which there was always an abundance at the hotel. The water 
of the hotel is therefore most excellent and unexceptional 
provided proper care and vigilance are exercised in cleaning 
the tanks, and guarding and keeping them from impurities. 
During the latter part of the hotel season of 1878-9, after a 
long protracted drouth, dysenteric complaints were alarm- 
ingly prevalent at the Victoria Hotel, and, although physicians 
were numbered among its guests, no one seemed able to dis- 
cover their cause. There was nothing disclosed in the taste, 
color or smell of the drinking water which indicated that it had 
anything to do with the trouble. The more we pondered upon 
the cause, the more we were puzzled. Before leaving Nassau we 
read the "Brief Auto-biography" of the former rector of one of 
the churches in Nassau, the late Rev. Wm. Strachan, D. D., who, 
in 1822, established a church and was for sometime its rector 
upon one of the Turks Islands. The latter part of the following 
extract from the little book (p. 58) excited in us some incredulity: 

''I found no wells in the island, and learned that the only 
water to be had, either for drinking or cooking purposes, was 
the rain which drops from the clouds, and is received into capa- 
cious tanks attached to the several houses. A stranger must be 
cautious how, and in what quantities, he imbibes the rain-water 
at first, as it is liable to produce a severe dysenteric attack." 



DYStKTfiRIO COMPLAINTS. 185 

In calling the attention of one of the military officials at Nas- 
sau to this subject, and to the paragraph we have quoted, he 
said : 

" Soon after my first arrival in Nassau, I was, in common with 
some other officers of the garrison, troubled with severe griping 
pains in the bowels, which I suspected was caused by impure 
water, and I caused the water in the cisterns to be drawn off. 
At the bottom I found a dark colored, dirty deposit, two to 
three inches thick. I had the cisterns thoroughly cleaned, and 
the. result was the griping pains disappeared." 

"When in April, 1879, we returned to Jacksonville, Fla., we 
learned that dysenteric complaints had made their ajopearance 
among the guests of the St. James Hotel, that the water in the 
cisterns of the hotel was discovered to be very imi^ure, and offen- 
sive to the taste and smell. In Jacksonville as well as at Nassau 
there had been a long season of dry weather, so that the cisterns 
were drawn down low, and the dirt at the bottom no doubt in 
both places poisoned the water — hence the sickness that followed 
its use. 

Ul3on our return to the north we sent the substance of the 
foregoing facts to the proprietor of the Royal Victoria Hotel, 
and he promised to have the cisterns of his hotel emptied and 
cleaned. 

Thus disease and death sometimes lurk, and wait, and watch 
for victims, Avhere they are looked for least. While at Nassau, 
in 1880, we had no evidence of the existence of any of the dysen- 
teric troubles that existed in 1879. Spring water is utilized at 
the hotel for some purposes, and a bountiful supjjly is carried to 
tanks elevated over the water-closets by means of a steam pump, 
and a suspicion existed when the bowel complaints made their 
appearance, that some of it had been used for cooking purposes. 
The hotel officials, however, denied that it had been so used. 



1§6 ISLES 0^ SlTMMEfi. . \ ' 

The dews at Nassau are often very heavy, and it is prudent to 
follow the poet's advice, and 

"The dews of the evening most carefully shun, 
Those tears of the sky for the loss of the sun." 

Some old residents of Nassau informed us that they considered 
the evening air in Nassau prejudicial to health. One of them — 
a lady — said that she was obliged to exclude herself from it to 
avoid lung disease. But when night after night so many bright; 
stars call to us from a cloudless sky to come out and look up — 
and especially when the moon rides in great splendor across the 
bluest of heavens on purpose to be seen, it seems hardly courteous 
or creditable to ignobly ensconce ourselves under mosquito bars, 
and be content with indolent repose or oblivious sleep. When 
we occasionally accepted of the invitation, it was only to be over- 
whelmed with the magnificence of the display, as was Moses on 
Sinai. 

The official Bahama mortuary statistics which we examined, _ 
failed to discriminate between the races, and to so localize the 
results that a comparison can be made between Nassau and its 
suburbs. The medical reports of the military department de- 
scribe the colored troops as being very licentious, and a large 
portion of them suffer from venereal diseases. These complaints 
are said to have been introduced into Grant's Town by French 
troops, when, upon the breaking up of Maxamillian's Government 
in Mexico, the vessels which were transporting them to France 
stopped on their way at Nassau. 

As a matter more of curiosity than of practical utility, we sub- 
join an abstract of the reported causes of death in all the Bahama 
islands in 1864. It is taken from Gov. Rawson's report for that 
year. 



3!TI(*HtT Alft. M6R1ff ARY STATISTtCS. 



W 



Caitsks. 



Averasre Quarterly 
Number. 



<5^ 









Percentage Proportion. 



O" 



G' 



& 



& 



Fevers : 

Ordinary, 

Yellow, 

Scarlet Eruptive, &c., . ., 

Diseases of Lungs and Heart,.. 

" *' Bowels and Liver, 

Dropsies, 

Diseases of Brain and Nerves : 

Apoplexy and Palsy, 

Convulsions and Spasms. 

Sudden and Violent, 

Stillborn, 

Childbirth, 

Other causes, 

Total, 



33 
1 
14 
34 
14 
7 

6 

24 

10 

3 

2 

45 



38 
5 
6 

38 

22 
5 

4 

14 

10 

1 

3 

47 



G3 
35 
12 
55 
26 
6 

3 

21 

7 

2 

3 

42 



58 
14 

9 
26 
19 

7 

6 

27 
9 
1 
5 

46 



10. 6 

.4 

7.3 

17.8 

7.3 

3.6 

3.1 
12.6 
5.0 
1.2 
1.0 
24.1 



19.7 

2.4 

2.9 

19.8 

11.4 

2.6 

2.1 

7.4 

5.0 

.7 

1.3 

24.7 



23.0 

12.7 

44 

20.1 

9.4 

2.1 

1.1 

7.5 

2.7 

.6 

1.2 

15.2 



25.4 
6.1 
3.7 

11.5 
8.5 
3.1 

2.6 
12.0 

4.1 
.6 

2.4 
20.0 



192 



192 



274 



230 



100.0 



100.0 



100.0 



100.0 



Gov. Eawson says, ''The inferences to be drawn from this 
table are that the latter half of the year is much more fatal to 
the population, to the extent of nearly one-third, and that this 
is owing chiefly to the prevalence of fevers, including yellow 
fever, which contributed one-third to the excess." 

" These islands are, without exception, remarkably healthy. 
They are free from, and are seldom visited by epidemic diseases. 
Intermittent fevers, which prevail to so great an extent on the 
neighboring continent, are comparatively infrequent here, and 
usually assume a mild form. During the last thirty-five years, 
Nassau has been visited by the cholera but once, viz.: in 1853; 
by small-pox in 1845 and 1860, when it was introduced in both 



1S8 ISLES OF StfMMER. 

instances from St. Domingo; and by the yellow feveT at distant 
intervals, and attended with very slight mortality, viz. : in 1829, 
1845 and 1853, until 1861-2, when from transient circumstances 
it assumed a more malignant form, and carried off a greater num- 
ber of victims, including the first bishop of the diocese. It re- 
peated its visits in 1863-4. 

''The inhabitants are, for the most part, a hardy, robust race. 
They consume little animal food, and live chiefly on Indian and 
Guinea corn, vegetables, fish and shell-fish. Many of the petty 
cultivators on the Windward Islands, who cling to their small 
plots, and refuse to seek employments as hired laborers in their 
own or other islands, are often reduced to much distress when 
their meagre crops of corn fail them through drought or other 
causes; and these are in the course of deterioration, both physi- 
cal and mental, enervated, indifferent to improvement, and bring- 
ing up their families in ignorance and sloth. 

"Nassau is usually very healthy and free from disease. In 
1862-64, during the height of the blockade-running trade, when 
the town was filled Avith strangers, the lodging houses were over- 
crowded, and the elements of disease were festering in the heart 
of the city, it is not surprising that the yellow fever, whether 
introduced by vessels coming from infected ports, or engendered 
by the unusual condition of the city, should have broken out. 
But it ivas conjined to strangers and to unaccUmited persons, 
and was not by any means fatal as compared Avith other places. 

" The Board of Health, a body constituted under a local Act, 
with large powers for the protection of the health of the colony, 
reported that in 1861-62, about 400 persons were attacked, and 
ninety-five died, in a population numbering in 1861, 11,503; and 
that in 1864, out of a population estimated at 15,000, the num- 
ber of cases was 700, and of deaths 137. Of these, 153 cases 
resulting in forty-^ve deaths, were admitted into the Quarantine 
Hospital from the shipping and lodging houses.". 



SANITARY COKDITIOISr. 18.9 

It should be considered that in the settlements upon some of 
the islands, the population is very much crowded, and that the 
health of the people suffers in consequence. Gov. Eawson, in 
his report for 1864, estimated that the population of Dunmore 
Town, upon the island of Eleutbera, was 2,500, and that the 
density was " about forty persons to the acre, or 124 square yards 
to each individual, which is nearly six times the average of the 
781 principal towns in England " in 1861. He adds, ''the con- 
sequence is that for the last two or three years the place has been 
very sickly, and typhoid fever has committed considerable rava- 
ges among the inhabitants. 

Upon a little key at the extreme north-west point of Eleu-, 
thera, and about five miles from Harbour Island, the settlement 
of Spanish Wells is situated. Gov. Rawson states in his report 
of 1864, that the inhabitants of Spanish Wells "^Miave continued 
to divide and sub-divide their lots among their children, so that 
the houses almost touch each other, and in some places the (so- 
called) street is not over three or four feet in Avidth. The area 
of the settlement does not exceed three acres; so that the popu- 
lation is upwards of 150 to the acre." He adds, "^they are un- 
cleanly in their habits, and all attempts to introduce sanitary 
rules among them have hitherto failed. Consequently, typhoid 
fever has lingered here, too, for the last three years." 

Gov. Eawson also speaks of another settlement upon Eleu- 
thera, called Governor's Harbor, where, he says, "^'the density 
of the population equals, if it does not exceed that of Spanish 
Wells." He says it is situated upon a rock, about 300 yards 
long, by 100 yards Avide, which is connected with the main land 
by a narrow neck of land, and that this rock is ''in miniature, 
very like the Rock of Gibraltar." 

He also states that "the people at Devil's Point, upon St. 
Salvador, have the worst reputation of any upon that island," 



190 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

and of ''being not only lazy, but addicted to the most vicious 
and immoral habits," Also, that upon Acklin's Island, 'Hhe 
commonest comforts and the ordinary necessaries of life are evi- 
dently wanting," which he attributes in part to the indolent 
habits of the people. He says that upon Fortune Island, the 
people (numbering 470)^*'' are all poor and unable even to repair 
their own dwellings, and that but for the fish, conchs and crabs, 
they would absolutely suffer and perish from want of the com- 
monest necessaries of life, for they are too indolent and inactive 
to go where their labor would be useful to themselves and others." 

We give these facts, not as fairly indicating^ the average char- 
acter and condition of the people living upon the Bahama islands, 
but as illustrating, 1st, that no air, however pure and delight- 
fully tempered and medicated it may be in its normal condition, 
will save a people from diseases of a malignant type when laws 
of health are disregarded; and 2d, that very elaborate health 
tables are of little value if they fail to discriminate between places 
where the sanitary conditions and habits of life of the people arc 
very ^^nlike — although they have some degree of geographical 
and political unity. 

We did not learn of any cases of yellow fever, cholera or small- 
pox, from 1864 to 1879. In Gov. Robinson's report for 1878, he 
states that "an epidemic of whooping cough prevailed for sev- 
eral months, causing much distress and some mortality amongst 
the children of the laboring classes." One would suppose that 
in such a climate, if whooping cough made its appearance at all, 
it would have been of a very mild type. It seems to have been 
otherwise in 1878. 

During the winter and spring of 1880, a malignant fever re- 
sulted in quite a number of deaths at Nassau, and it is our belief 
that it was yellow fever, and we will state the evidence upon 
which our opinion is predicated. 



THE YELLOW FEVEE. 191 

Upon the morning of the day the steamer lef fc New York, on 
which we had engaged our passage out, a gentleman startled us 
a little by announcing that *' Nassau had got a black eye." He 
said it had been reported in the States that the yellow fever had 
broken out in Nassau, but that the Governor of the Bahamas and 
the foreign consuls at Nassau had published cards denying the 
truth of the report. Our steamer stopped at Fernandina, and a 
gentleman there told us that a physician, recently from Nassau, 
and then at the Egremont Hotel, in Fernandina, stated that be- 
fore he left there had been in Nassau two deaths from that dis- 
ease. The steamer City of Austin had then just arrived at Fer- 
nandina from Nassau, and one of its passengers assured us that 
there was not any yellow fever in Nassau when he left. None 
of our passengers were alarmed sufficiently to alter their plans, 
and when upon the day of our arrival in Nassau we entered 
the dining room of the Victoria Hotel, and saw how merry and 
healthy and hungry everybody seemed to be, the last vestige of 
the yellow fever scare disappeared. For some days no allusion 
was made to ''Yellow Jack," but after a while pretty well authen- 
ticated reports reached us of quite a number of cases of sickness 
and death within the city limits, but outside of the hotel. It 
appears that the disease attacked at first the children of the 
natives, some twenty or more of whom died. It was said that 
it could not be yellow fever, first, because it was confined to the 
children, and second, because none but children belonging in 
Nassau had been attacked; whereas unacclimated adults were the 
first to be stricken down when yellow fever prevails. 

After which we learned of a few cases of alarming sickness 
among the visitors from the States and elsewhere, several of which 
resulted in death. One of the latter was the wife of Dr. Aiken. 
She was previously a healthy woman, but the doctor was an in- 
valid. They had been boarding with a Nassau gentleman who 



193 ISLES OF SU:\IMEE. 

held the office of Assistant United States Consul. This case oc- 
curred in a house situated upon high ground very near to the 
hotel, which the owner and his family thereupon, for prudential 
reasons, vacated. Dr. Aiken then came to the Victoria Hotel to 
board, and he was afterAvards our fellow passenger when we left 
Nassau for Florida. He told us that the disease was yellow fever, 
and that the sanitary conditions of the Vice-Consul's premises 
outside of and close to his dwelling house were very offensive and 
bad. 

Our young friend from Vermont, Mr. Phelps, arrived at Nas- 
sau in November with his invalid mother. He had the fever, 
but his mother escaped, although she took care of him night and 
day, with the exception of two nights, when, by advice of a local 
physician, she entrusted her son, while convalescent, to the care 
of a nurse whom the doctor recommended. This nurse got drunk, 
neglected the sick man, who took cold in consequence, and had 
a relapse. His life was then despaired of by the physicians, but 
he was saved at last by an experiment which the mother had the 
sagacity and courage to make upon her own responsibility, and 
without the knowledge of the medical attendants. She admin- 
istered, in connection with the prescribed medicines, some kind 
of salts, (we have forgotten what kind,) first in small but frequent 
doses, watching him closely all the while, and had the great sat- 
isfaction of seeing the fever gradually give way, and finally dis-. 
appear. The doses were increased as the salutary operation of . 
the medicine was developed. When she afterwards told the 
doctors what she had been doing, they were (as she represented- 
to us) offended, although she had apparently saved the life of 
hor son after they hod announced that ho could not recover. 
Yrith the exception of keeping a little piece of camphor gum in 
her mouth, she did notliing to escape tlic contagion of the dis- 
ease. One of the attending physicians, who was accustomed to 



BEASONS FOR LEAVIISTG. 193 

sit upon the bed of the sick man, she believed carried the disease 
to his own home, for two of his daughters thereafter had the 
fever and died. He then abandoned his house upon East Hill 
street, within a block or block and a-half of our hotel, and moved 
with the remainder of his family to ''Thompson's Folly," where 
he was sure of the best kind of Bahama air, and a plenty of it, 
although he took the chance of being blown some day half across 
the Atlantic ocean by a hurricane. The disease was not pesti- 
lential but sporadic, and although it was near to, it did not enter 
the hotel. It was evidently a very undesirable fever to have, 
whether entitled to be called yellow or not. Two out of three of 
the resident physicians persistently denied that it was yellow 
fever, while the third one, who was in Nassau when the yellow 
fever prevailed at the time of our late American war, differed 
with them on this point. A gentleman on familiar terms with 
the prominent men of Nassau, informed us before we left, that 
it was not at first believed to be yellow fever, simply because it 
was confined to children, and especially to the children of natives, 
*'but now," said he, ''that it has attacked adult strangers, they 
admit it to be yellow fever. " These admissions were not publicly 
made or generally known. 

Our attention was occasionally attracted by consultations, pri- 
vate and mysterious, of persons who traveled in company. A 
growing and constantly increasing desire to speedily return to 
the land of the starry flag was discernable, and we learned, after 
a while, that the state-rooms in the Nassau steamers for their 
return trips had been secured for sometime in advance by certain 
wise and thoughtful ones — among whom we, alas, were not' 
numbered. There was no panic, but only a quiet and commend- 
able exhibition of prudence. So far as we could learn, no cases 
of fever had occurred at our hotel, and nothing was observed in 
its immediate yicinity calculated to generate or invite disease. 

17 



194 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 

Unfavorable rumors floated more or less loosely in the soft and 
silky air, but, notwithstanding, the wings of fear were kept 
wonderfully well clip^Ded. Nor did we permit ourselves to be 
made unhappy by unfavorable possibilities. We knew that bor- 
rowed troubles are worse than real ones; but still the fact was 
too jDatent to be overlooked or ignored, that only a single floating 
bridge, of limited capacity, connected us with Florida's wet and 
flowery land, and that if it, for any cause should give way, as 
several of its predecessor's had done, it might be some weeks be- 
fore its owners in New York Avould learn of the disaster, and span 
the Florida gulf with a substitute. Nor did Ave feel any strong 
desire, personally, to " lie down to pleasant dreams" in the white 
coraline rock of "the greatest sanitarium of the western world," 
even though a colonial capital should in consequence thereof be 
beautified and made forever famous by our monument. 

After a while our turn to depart came, and a feeling of great 
satisfaction — not to say relief — came over us when we bade adieu 
to the great sanitarium, and the charming jjicture of jcAvelled 
isles in a turquoise sea disappeared from view. Proudly our 
steamer skimmed the smooth, untroubled and tranquil world of 
waters, slowly and grandly the day god 

"Steeped 
His fiery face in billows of the west, " 

while the night was made glorious with its canopy of brilliant 
stars. It spoke well for our ship, and for the hotel in which we 
had spent so many happy hours, that in neither of them had 
there been a single case of serious sickness of any kind. 

Mr. Phelps and his mother, and Dr. Aiken, were our fellow- 
passengers, so that it seemed — especially while they detailed to us 
their sad experiences — that we Avere brought almost into the A-ery 
presence of the much to be dreaded fever itself. But a kind and 



A CROWDED STEAMER. 195 

merciful Providence so ordered it, that we escaped entirely 
unharmed the perils of sickness and of the sea, and as our 
steamer had a clear bill of health, we were saved from numbering 
among our exjDcriences, a practical acquaintance with the inde- 
scribable attractions of the quarantine system in southern ports 
in very warm weather. 

About four weeks afterwards we took passage in the screw 
steamer City of Austin, at Fernandina, for New York. She had 
just arrived from Nassau with a large number of passengers, in-, 
eluding Mr. Morton, the pro|)rietor of the Eoyal Victoria Hotel, 
together with his principal assistants. The children of the 
American Consul were also on board, and we learned that the 
Consul and his wife designed to follow them so soon as his official 
duties would admit of his leaving. We had also the Episcopal 
Bishop and his children. The Bishop's wife was one of the vic- 
tims of the fever, and we had no doubt he had left Nassau because 
he was not willing to incur the hazards incident to a residence 
there during the warm and Avet season of the year. We could 
not but deeply sympathise with him. in his great affliction, and 
half regret that we had allowed ourselves to be amused at the 
high sounding titles which, upon his arrival the year previous, 
helped so much to insjoire the Bahamians with reverence, if not 
with awe. Upon ship-board there were certain peculiarities in 
his every day costume, as striking as a Chinaman's pig-tail, which 
were well calculated to attract attention. They were strongly 
suggestive of the fact that the man whom they adorned was not 
an ordinary individual. But in the shadow of his great bereave- 
ment, surrounded, as he was, with his pretty but motherless little 
ones, wo were not disposed to unfavorably criticise or iuAvardly 
smile at the peculiarities of his costume. We did not make the 
Bishop's acquaintance, but he was dignified without seeming vain 
and conceited, and his intelligent, amiable and good natured 
countenance quite prepossessed us in his favor. 



196 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

Our ship was very much crowded, and some passengers slept 
upon the floor of the main saloon, hut being favored by pleasant 
weather, and no pestilential or other diseases having made their 
appearance, little inconvenience was experienced. "We ought not, 
perhaps, to omit one instance of sickness which occurred on 
board, and was said to have occasioned at first some uneasiness. 
The sick man was employed upon the steamer, and a physician, 
after looking him over, and making a thorough diagnosis of his 
case, reported that his patient had only an attack of "whiskey 
fever," and that he would be all right in the morning. 

As we made our way up the beautiful harbor of New York in 
the early morning of a charming day, and felt the thrilling and 
exquisite pleasure incident to a safe return to our native shores, 
we almost forgot that a malignant disease had recently thrown 
unpleasant occasional shadows over us upon one of the isles of 
summer, and had almost brushed against us with the hem of its 
garment as it passed by. 

Mr. Phelps has written us that he has, since his return, received 
letters from Nassau, and his mother has entertained several per- 
sons who reside in Nassau, at her house in Vermont ; that his 
Nassau corespondents stated that at the time of their writing, 
the yellow fever prevailed extensively in Nassau, and that it 
had occasioned many deaths; that the wife and two children of 
the Wesleyan minister at Nassau, Major Simpson and two of 
his children, and a lady visitor from Ontario, Canada, were 
numbered among its victims. Also, that the local physicians 
there now admit that Mr. Pheljos had " the genuine yellow 
fever." 

Another gentleman, whose sources of information through 
correspondents in Nassau are at least equally good, though less 
disinterested, writes us as follows: "The fever has shown itself 
spasmodically at Nassau this summer, but to very little extent. 



YELLOW FEVER IK SOUTHERK ClttES. lOf 

The town has been very thoroughly cleansed, and if the recent 
hurricane has visited Nassau, as it probably has, the germs of 
the disease will be destroyed." It is, therefore, now altogether 
probable, that the sickness which occurred in Nassau in the win- 
ter and spring of 1880, was of the yellow fever type. That it 
did not more generally prevail, is no doubt due to the fact that 
Nassau is so well ventilated with ocean winds. In certain locali- 
ties there existed conditions favorable to its spread, and in these 
the fever germs took root, so that the disease was sporadic and 
not pestilential, and the result of local causes. 

The fact should in this connection be stated, as a matter of 
justice to Nassau, that all the cities of the Southern States and 
of the West India Islands, have been occasionally subject to the 
same disease. 

An apparently intelligent and well-informed correspondent of 
" The Semi-Tropical," — a monthly magazine formerly published 
in Jacksonville, Florida — in the December number of that peri- 
odical for 1877, gives some instances of the prevalence of this 
disease which are worthy of consideration. He says: " In 1857, 
Jacksonville was visited by a fatal epidemic, generated by the 
opening of the railroad through a swamp hole in the heart of 
a little hamlet during the warm season, when the exhalations 
were foetid with miasma. It was confined at first to those resid- 
ing in the immediate vicinity of this swamp, and radiated from 
that center, but did not cross the river. It was as destructive 
as yellow fever, though in many respects, it lacked some of the 
essential features of that disease. It proved fatal to an alarming 
degree, but more from the impossibility of securing nurses and 
proper assistance, than from any necessity of the disease." He 
adds that before that, yellow fever cases from the West Indies 
had not spread. 

He also refers to *'a few fatal cases of what is termed in the 



1^^ tSLl^fe 6f SuMM^fe. 

West Indies, butcher's fever, which occurred two years sinc^, 
[1875,] in Jacksonville, Fla., about the market." 

Under date of November 20, 1877, -while his article was part- 
ly in type, he adds — "Yellow fever has been proclaimed in Jack- 
sonville, and in such a manner as to cause the most false ideas 
and groundless apprehensions abroad. " He adds that '' not more 
than five cases have occurred, and in regard to these, some of our 
most experienced physicians express the greatest doubt." But 
it seems to be consistent with the code of medical ethics, to doubt 
and deny if thereby the spread of disease may be prevented or 
checked. The materia medica includes moral as well as physi- 
cal jDoisons, experience having shown that they are the antidotes 
of fear. A medical man from Boston, told us in ISTassaii that 

Dr. of Nassau, could not be much of a physician, for if he 

was, he Avould not say that yellow fever existed there, even if it 
did in fact. 

The magazine writer refers to the exemption of St. Augustine 
from yellow fever for fifty years during its occupancy by the 
tSpanish and British authorities, and to its prevalence in 1821. 
We were assured that cases of this disease occurred in St. Augus- 
tine a few winters since, and some cases are occasionally to be 
expected perhaps in all cities not favored with frost. 

He says that "in 1822, the yellow fever was introduced into 
Pensacola, by a cargo of spoilt fish being cast upon the wharf." 

That, "when the yellow fever prevailed in the town of St. 
Mary's, Ga., about 1808 — a place of great general health — such, 
he was informed, was the state of the atmosphere, that beef, 
twenty-four hours killed, fell from the hook by putrif action, and 
water drawn from the well in the evening, Avas in a state of mu- 
cilage next morning." 

In 1878, the yellow fever prevailed at Port Royal, and we were 
there told, that fifty persons died of the disease. And yet, the 



YELLOW FEVEH i:S" S0UTHER:N' CITIES. 199 

place is quite small. The fever is supposed to have been caused 
hy digging up the ground to make certain improvements which 
the railroad's freighting business demanded. 

The city of Fernandina in Florida, is pleasantly situated on a 
rise of ground upon Amelia Island. Its vicinity to the ocean, 
whose winds and the tides that flow through the spacious water- 
ways that lead to it, would seem to secure for it immunity from 
malignant diseases, although there are low and wet savannahs in 
its immediate neighborhood. It is something of a health resort 
in winter. We learned while there, from some of its residents, 
that the yellow fever scourged the city in the summer of 1877, 
The magazine writer whom we have quoted, refers to it in his 
article, and says that in a population of 3000 there were 1000 
cases of yellow fever, which resulted in 100 deaths. He states 
that it was caused by opening ditches through wet lands in hot 
weather, and by the discharging of a large amount of ballast from 
a vessel with yellow fever on board, " into the heart of the town, 
and in the midst of this reclaimed swamp;" and that, " accord- 
ing to a well established law, the introduction of a quick, viru- 
lent disease will drive out or characterize all local diseases, and 
become epidemic." 

Notwithstanding the grave and serious importance of the sub- 
ject, one can hardly refrain from smiling when he sees the in- 
habitants of a fever-stricken city looking to a hurricane for their 
deliverance, as travelers and pioneers upon the great western 
prairies sometimes fight fire with fire. Destructive cyclones have 
commissions of mercy and beneficence to execute, and God not 
only makes " the wrath of man," but the angry winds '"to j)raise 
him." The blessed angel of health, when driven out of its 
strong-holds in the cities of the South, and upon the beautiful 
coral isles, harnesses itself to a hurricane and returns, driving 
out, scattering and destroying its enemy. Incidentally huge 



200 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

trees are torn up by the roots, houses blown down, and some lives 
destroyed, but health and happiness pitch their tents upon the 
ruins. Since the great hurricane of 18G6, and until the year 
1880, the yellow fever, so far as we have been able to learn, 
though domiciled in Havana, has been a stranger in the Bahamas. 
We trust Nassau will for many years to come be free from its 
visitations. 

Although Nassau's sanitary character has not always been un- 
sullied, and it has occasionally suffered a '^fall from grace," its 
reputation as a sanitarium has generally been not only good but 
well deserved. It never has been and never will be safe, espec- 
ially in countries where frosts are unknown, to violate the laws 
of health which nature has imposed. The operation of these 
laws, and the enforcement of their penalties, is as sure and silent 
as the revolutions of the stars. Disease and death sleeplessly 
watch from their coverts at the gates of every stronghold of 
health. Eternal vigilance is the price of safety. ''A little 
slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep " in the drowsy air, 
by the boards of health, has caused many happy homes to be 
made desolate in the past, as it will in the future, when hard but 
salutary lessons are forgotten. 

If Nassau, for six consecutive months out of every twelve, is 
not one of the healthiest places in the world, it is the fault of its 
people. From November to April, the seeds of malignant dis- 
eases will not germinate in its healing and healthful air, if wise 
sanitary regulations are made and enforced. She owes it to her- 
self, and to valetudinarians in the British American Provinces, 
and in the States of the Union, who desire to seek for health 
within her limits, to see to it that the pure air which nature 
wafts to her constantly from the ocean, and the pure distilled 
water from the clouds, artificially or naturally stored in its coral- 
line rocks, shall not be polluted and made inimical to health by 
a criminal neglect of the first and plainest hygienic principles. 



KASSAU'S GENERAL GOOD REPUTATION". 301 

'■'It is an ill-wind that blows no one any good," and the peo- 
ple of Nassau live largely upon the misfortunes of others. Disa- 
bled hulks from the stormy ocean, and from the troubled sea of 
human life, fly to it as a harbor of refuge, and the amount paid 
for salvage in each class of cases, aggregates every year a large 
sum. By a liberal expenditure of money in mapping and light- 
ing the channels of commerce, the British government has cur- 
tailed one source of income, which will be in a measure made up 
"by the adoption and rigid enforcement of wise sanitary laws. 

For the benefit of our readers, we give the views of a number 
of intelligent gentlemen in regard to the merits of Nassau as a 
health resort. They were written from different stand points, 
and cover periods of time widely separated. 

Peter Henry Bruce, an English engineer, was commissioned 
in 1741, to build and make good the defenses of Nassau. After 
speaking in his Memoirs of its climate, and characterizing it 
"as the most serene and most temperate in all America," he 
says, "it is, therefore, no wonder that the sick and afflicted in- 
habitants of this [English] climate fly here for relief, being sure 
to find cure here." Thus it appears that its fame as a health 
resort in winter was well established nearly a century and a-half 
ago. 

Dr. W. T. Hutchinson, of Providence, R. I., highly recomr 
mends Nassau for those who suffer from diseases of the nervous 
system, and who require rest for body and mind, for brain and 
muscle. 

Dr. W. Kirkwood, of Florence, Ital}^, affirms his belief "that 
the climate of Nassau, during the winter months, is superior to 
any winter resorts for pulmonary invalids " which he has visited, 
and he had spent four years in Italy and the South of France. 
But we conclude it was a hasty opinion based ujpon a short ex- 
perience of Nassau's mild and uniform climate. 



202 ISLES OP SUMMEE. 

Gen. Jamea Watson Webb, said in 1870, that "from the first 
of November to the first of June, there is not, in all probability, 
any spot on the face of the earth so desirable for persons suffer- 
ing from pulmonary complaints." From the facts and opinions 
we have given, the reader will judge whether this unqualified 
recommendation is not too broad and sweeping. 

Dr. F. A. Castle, editor of "'JSTew Remedies," with more dis- 
crimination, and we think truth, said in 1877, that "■ in those 
forms of lung trouble Avhere there is profuse expectoration and 
perspiration, we should hardly think of recommending patients 
to visit the Bahamas. But in the early stages of chronic pneu- 
monia and catarrhal pneumonia, in tubercules, convalescence 
from acute diseases, and in exhaustion from over-work and worry, 
the advantage of being able to live, if necessary, out of doors, 
without the fatigue of heavy clothing, the comparative freedom 
from risk of catching cold, and the purety of the atmosphere, 
render this one of the most healthful as well as available resorts 
of which we have any knowledge." 

The Eev. Dr. Nelson Millard, writing from Nassau in March, 
1876, said, " Such a climate, if resorted to in time, often works 
with wondrous curative power upon affections of the throat, 
bronchia and lungs — as in the case of bronchitis, I can testify 
from personal experience. " 

Epes Sargent, Esq., a gentleman of considerable literary cul- 
ture, but whose opinion may be unconsciously biased from the 
fact that he keeps a boarding house at Nassau, says, '*' that for 
all [.^] diseases of the lungs, throat, liver, kidneys, or spine, there 
is no climate on the face of the earth superior, and I doubt if any 
equal, to the climate of Nassau." And again, ''some most won- 
derful cures of pulmonary diseases, asthma, rheumatism, neural- 
gia and bronchitis have been performed almost entirely by the 
climate. In the first stage of the disease, recovery is almost 



FAVORABLE TESTIMON"Y. 203 

Certain." Mr. Sargeant has had ^^nquestionably superior oppor- 
tunities of learning the facts, and his opinion, notAvithstanding 
his personal interest, is entitled to considerable weight. 

We were interested in 1879, to hear two of our Kassau friends 
who had been at the Bermudas, compare them with Nassau. One 
declared that the Bahamas weakened and debilitated, while his 
system in the Bermudas was refreshed and invigorated. Both 
winter resorts have the ocean air, but one is cool and tonic — the 
other so warm it wilted and unstrung him. He did not want to 
see the Bahamas any more. The other declared the Bermudas 
no place at all for a sick man; that it rained there all the time, 
and was therefore damp and wet, while its temperature was sub- 
ject to great fluctuations, and was very trying to invalids. But 
Nassau, he affirmed, was just the place for a sick man to enjoy 
himself and get well. A large, healthy looking and intelligent 
man who was returning home with us after a six months' resi- 
dence at Nassau, spoke very strongly against it. He did not 
like boating, and preferred to take his exercise on foot. When 
the sun was up he could not walk out because it was so very hot, 
while the damp and unhealthy night air made out-door exercise 
at that time unsafe. He had no desire to go there again. Other 
passengers on the Savannah steamer in 1879, including the author, 
felt that to them Nassau had been a great sanitarium, while its 
bland air, beautiful waters, coral bowers and bright skies, will 
ever secure for it a most prominent place in the mind's store- 
house of pleasant memories. 

The wife of the author of this book was relieved of bronchial 
and asthmatic troubles at Nassau, in 1879, which did not return 
while she was at our sea-side residence upon the north shore of 
Long Island Sound during the following summer. In the suc- 
ceeding fall and early winter the old troubles again made their 
appearance in a modified form, but the air of Nassau in March, 



Mi ISLES O'P StMMEK. 

1880, supplemented by that of Florida in April, afPected an ap- 
parent cure. 

We knew of an instance where a person suffering from catarrh 
of the bladder found great relief at Nassau. 

A judge from the city of New York was stopping at the Vic- 
toria Hotel when we arrived in 1879, v/ho was sufferiDg from 
what was thought to be a softening of the brain. In such cases, 
perhaps, a more tonic atmosphere is desirable. He attempted 
to resume his judicial labors soon after his return, but found 
himself incapacitated. 

We made the acquaintance at Nassau, in 1879, of a lady who 
was then apparently cured of a bronchial disease, but she had 
some return of it the following summer in the mountains of North 
Carolina. 

It is impossible in a great many cases to know beforehand with 
certainty what effect the air of the Bahamas will produce — wheth- 
er favorable or unfavorable. It is not adapted to meet the neces- 
sities of all. Nassau is unlike the pool of Siloam, that cured all 
comers. Some are prosti-ated in its warm enervating air. A 
medical gentleman informed us that in confirmed consumption 
it relaxes the tissues, and that severe hemorrhages follow. If 
good in that complaint at all, it is only in its early stages. This 
we learned both from observation and from the testimony of 
physicians on the spot. One of these said to us, "Don't recom- 
mend these islands for consumption and rheumatism." A resi- 
dent physician of good repute declared the climate bad for rheu- 
matism. A young clergyman, prostrated by a pulmonary com- 
plaint in the dawn of what promised to be a most useful life, 
went over in the same steamer Avith us, in 1879, and for sometime 
it seemed doubtful if he Avould ever be able to leave the island 
alive. We were told in Nassau, in 1880, that his health was 
improved. 



■WHO MAY EXPECT BEKTEFIT. SOSl 

As Nassau's position is isolated, and so far removed from the 
cities of the north, with only one weekly line of steamers, and 
no telegraph, as yet, to connect it with the States, it is not the 
place one would ordinarily select in Avhich to be very sick, and 
many better places nearer home can be found in which to die. 
A physician whom we met in Nassau, in 1879, said to us: "It 
costs a thousand dollars to die here. In one instance, last year, 
(18'78,) $300 dollars was paid for the use of a small building as 
a dead house, and other charges were in proportion." If one is 
dangerously sick, there is no place for him like home, with its 
comforts and unbought sympathies. 

To those who are weak, debilitated, over-worked and run down, 
whose feeble hold on life is constantly endangered by sudden 
fluctuations of temperature, and the severe storms and cold winds 
of the north, the warm and beautiful Islands of Indolence and 
Sensuous Eepose, attract with flattering promises of permanent 
benefit. New leases of life are doubtless accessible to many 
such in Nassau. But Ave do not believe that either shore of the 
Mediterranean Sea, the banks of tlie Nile, Madeira, Florida, or 
any Isle of Unending Summer, can furnish desirable homes for 
white people in health. We have only to compare the natives 
of the States north of the old Mason's and Dixon's line (includ- 
ing cold and bleak New England), and their works, with ''the 
children of the sun " and their neglected opportunities, to be sat- 
isfied on this point. The cold north wind stimulates, braces 
and builds up. Every blast, fearlessly and boldly breasted, in- 
vigorates the healthy body, enriches the blood, and gives vitali- 
zing and enduring strength and power to the mental and moral 
forces. In the temperate zone the mental, moral and jDhysical 
powers of man reach their highest development. Frost is an 
essential factor in the problem of civilization. All human pro- 
gress is bottomed upon ice. The great and profound truths, the 

18 



S06' ISLES OF STTMMEE. 

hidden laws of the world of matter and mind are born of the 
north wind sweeping over the snow fields. 

"Wandering through the wilderness of streets in the noisy Babel 
of the Empire State, only seventy-four miles from hom.e, a little 
unassimilated globule in a great eddying, boiling sea of human 
life, separated and isolated from familiar scenes and faces, and 
from warm and sympathetic hearts, a murky and crushing feel- 
ing of loneliness that we cannot dispel pervades the soul, and 
life for the time loses its value by reason of its comparative in- 
significance. But the frequent mails, the long lines of railroad, 
the locomotive with its ribs of steel and mouth of fire, the bridges 
of steamboats over all the deep separating Avater-ways, the j^erfect 
net-work of tclegraijh and telephone v/ires, like great life-roots, 
still closely unite and bind to the familiar places and faces that 
we have left behind us; Avhile the morning press, that miracle of 
modern enterprise and invention — seems to so closely connect us, 
that we realize that we are indeed a component part of the great 
world of human life, and we feel every pulsation of its great 
heart. But upon the little island of New Providence — a rock 
fast anchored in the great ocean — communication with the out- 
side world is so infrequent and contingent, that we seem when 
anxiously waiting, watching, and vainly longing for the arrival 
from Jacksonville of the only steamer that connects these islands 
with the mainland, like a little colony of Eobinson Crusoes. 

On stepping from the deck of a steamer, ujDon one of the 
docks at Nassau, Ave have a consciousness that we are mere waifs 
on the ocean of life, dissevered and far away drifted from every- 
thing that makes a residence upon the sun's little satelite desir- 
able. 

The tired worker, needing absolute quiet and rest, can find it 
there. But he must make np his mind not to be anxious or 
fussy about friends and business in his distant home. If, day 



ISLAISTD SOLITUDES. SEA-BATHING IN WINTER. 207 

after day, the expected steamer fails to arrive, and he looks a 
hundred times in vain for the signal of her ajjproach upon the 
flag-staff at Fort Fincastle, he must not allow himself to think 
even of the possibility that she has foundered at sea, or has been 
wrecked on some of the dangerous rocks or reefs or shores that 
have made the Bahamas so noted in the past. He must not in- 
dulge in speculations upon the probable results of such a misfor- 
tune, nor strive to find out how long it will be before the outside 
world will hear of the disaster and make provision for his return 
to the living busy world from which he is separated. If he has 
a sick- relative in charge, he must not undertake to solve the con- 
undrum what he ought to do in case the sickness assumes a very 
dangerous form, and how he will manage in case of death. But, 
on the other hand, by all means let him feast and fill his soul 
with the sensuous, ambrosial delights that surround him, thank 
God for the clear, blue skies, the mild uniform temperature, 
the soft and balmy airs, the tranquil and beautiful seas, the 
strange, wonderful fauna of the emerald water, the picturesque 
islets and keys, and the new and most charming vegetable world 
that is ever spread out in unfading beauty before him; let him 
enjoy the present, trust in the future, and in a Divine Providence 
that wisely directs, rules and overrules with unerring wisdom 
and unflagging benevolence, and leave to fools and madmen the 
bad business of distilling, like wasps and hornets in flower gar- 
dens, poisons from present joys. 

While considering Nassau's advantages as a health resort in 
winter, we ought not to omit to mention the facilities which it 
offers for sea bathing. In this particular nature has done for it 
all that could be reasonably asked or desired. She has furnished 
both air and water of a most agreeable temperature at all seasons 
of the year, and during all the hours of both day and night. 
No cold currents of either air or water are encountered. The 



20^ ISLES OF SUMMiER. 

islands are situated within tlio limits of tho isothermal belt, that 
in the neighborhood of the equator, nearly encircles, with a warm 
watery girdle, the earth. The Gulf Stream protects it upon the 
west and north, while the strong v/inds, that sometimes jDrevail, 
seem unable to bring to the surface the colder water that fills 
the bed of the vast oceanic basins. Besides private bath houses 
along the city's harbor front, bathing facilities are furnished near 
Fort Montague. Crossing the harbor in a row-boat, the north 
shore of Hog Island is soon reached, where the surf rolls in from 
the ocean, and bathing of a lively and exciting description can be 
enjoyed by those who experience an exhilarating pleasure in 
breasting the strong and foaming billows. Some gentlemen who 
occasionally tried surf bathing there before breakfast, spoke very 
highly in its praise, but regretted that no one had life, energy 
and enterprise enough to smooth the surface of the rocks — a work 
requiring but a few hours of labor with a hammer. 

Some indulged every morning in a sea-water sponge bath in 
their rooms. 



CHAPTEK Xir. 

Corals and Coral Reefs. The Marvelous Beauty of the " Mai-ine Oarden." 
Its Corals, Cor alines, Oorgonias, Algm, Sponges, and Wonderfully Colored 
Fishes. Water Glasses. Natural Aqttamims. Coral Bowers and Grottoes. 
Sea Urchins. The Colored Divers. Life in the Rock. 

" There with a light and easy motion 
The fan-coral sweeps througli the clear deep sea, 
And life, in rare and beautiful forms, 
Is sporting amid the bowers of stone, 
While the waters murmur tranquilly- 
Through the bending twigs of the coral groves." — Peecival. 

While at Nassau it was our happy destiny to make the partial 
acquaintance of some of the members of a family of the most 
ceaseless, and indefatigable builders that have ever existed since 
the vs^orld first commenced to keep step to the '^'^ music of the 
spheres," and sweep in grand cycles around the sun. Called into 
existence by the fiat of Jehovah, in that vague and mysterious 
*' beginning" when "the earth was without form," and ''dark- 
ness was upon the face of the deejD," the little corals, with the 
first peep of creation's early dawn, commenced, in the warm clear 
waters of the great primeval sea, their silent, unobtrusive and 
apparently insignificant work — evidences of which, clear and in- 
disputable, the researches of modern scientists have discovered 
far inland, hundreds and thousands of miles from where the 
Western Atlantic billows "beat the sounding shore." In an 
unbroken line of descent, from the depths of a past so vast and 

209 



^10 ISLES 6t feUM!MS;ft. 

profound that the minds of tlie wisest men reel, totter and 
give way when they attempt to grasp and follow it, the little, 
tireless, plodding, stone-secreting corals of our own times have 
descended. The monuments of their Past are the islands and 
continents, whose foundations they laid, that have arisen out of 
the sea — while the Future patiently, in solemn majesty, awaits 
the completion, in tropical and semi-tropical latitudes, of those 
new foundations, now being so quietly and noiselessly laid by 
these diligent builders, upon which the " new earth " of prophecy 
is to rest. 

Looking at them in the perfectly clear waters of the Bahamas, 
how insignificant they appear! Studying them more carefully 
in the light of the vast results which they have already accom- 
plished, they seem foremost among the great builders, made and 
set apart by Grod for the erection of homes, in a vast and wild 
waste of waters, for all the varied forms of vegetable and animal 
life. Individually they are seemingly as insignificant as the motes 
in a sun-beam. Collectively, as seen through the dim mists 
which shroud in gloom the vast unknown periods lying back of 
the small cycles of recorded time, they glow and are hallowed 
with a radiance reflected from a divinity whose decrees they ex- 
ecute. " The mill of the gods grinds slow;" to Him who had no 
beginning and is ever existing, "a thousand years are as one 
day," — and as we, from time to time, gazed at and reflected upon 
these little but most important creatures in their ocean homes, 
they revealed to us more of the divine than did ever the lofty 
cloud-capped mountain in its sublimity, or the vast ocean when 
vexed and tossed by the wildest and most angry storms. Upon 
our arrival in Nassau they were the first to attract our attention, 
and, before leaving, they were among the last to engage our 
thoughts and employ our pen. When we would projjose the task 
of attempting some description of them, we felt an indescribable 



I'eluctance to commence, and were awed into silence, knowing 
that we could make but a faint picture of the corals as they 
appear to the eye, or give satisfactory expression to the moody 
speculations which they naturally suggest to an inquiring mind. 

The coral was formerly believed to belorg to the vegetable 
kingdom, but naturalists have for some time agreed that it is one 
of the lowest forms of animal life. To those whom " proud science 
never taught to stray," it apj^ears, upon casual inspection, to be 
in some of its forms nothing but a curious and beautiful kind of 
limestone, and in others a marine vegetable having such a stony 
habit of growth as closely to ally it to the inanimate rock upon 
which it builds, and to which it is securely attached and appar- 
ently rooted. It belongs to the large family of coralligerotis 
zoophytes, and is found not only in the Bahama waters, but off 
the coast of Florida, around the Bermuda and West India islands, 
Madagascar and Mauritius, off the coast of Zanzibar, in the Per- 
sian Gulf, in the Red and the Mediterranean Seas, and in the 
Indian and Pacific oceans; but, as it cannot live and work excejit 
in water of the temperature of not less than 68° of Fahrenheit, it 
is only found within a belt of ocean thirty-six hundred miles 
wide, through which the line of the equator runs. In colder 
latitudes, and off the western coast of South America and Africa, 
it is not found. Some of its reefs are over a thousand miles 
long. 

The most important of the coral-making animals are the Polyps, 
which in external form and delicacy of coloring Prof. Dana com- 
pares to the garden aster. Both have a central disc, fringed 
with petal-like organs called tenacles. Below the disk the coral 
polyp has a stout cylindrical pedicel or body which contains the 
stomach and internal cavity of the polyp. The mouth is in the 
center of the disk. The coral animal is very domestic, from ne- 
cessity, being as it were, " tied to its own door-post." Like a tree 



.913 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

or shrub, through its little round of life it remains fastened to 
the same spot, and the process of increasing and multiplying 
never stops. Closely compacted in compound grouj^s, a single 
zoophyte is formed by a budding process differing little from the 
budding process in vegetable growth. The coral animals while 
thus closely associated, living together and constantly multiply- 
ing, secrete the beautiful corallum or coral of commerce and cab- 
inets, which is merely the skeleton on which the soft and perishable 
portion of the animal rests, and to which it adheres. Coral reefs 
are, in their outer surfaces, mainly composed of great communi- 
ties of these flowering zoophytes, below which the dead skeletons 
are compacted and solidified. 

The coral reefs were divided by Charles Darwin in his Voyage 
of a Naturalist, jDublished many years ago, into three classes. 
The first, which are found in the immediate neighborhood of the 
land, in shallow water, he called fringing reef corals; and the 
second, barrier reef corals. These two surround islands or skirt 
continents, but they are separated from the neighboring shores 
by navigable channels, while their outer margins often border 
ocean depths as vast as those seen from lofty mountain tops. A 
barrier coral reef is formed off the coast of Australia, of sufficient 
length to more than reach from Nassau to New York. It is from 
twenty to thirty miles from the shore, and is a breakwater to a 
great natural highway, having a de|Dtli of water of from sixty to 
six hundred feet. The remaining class of coral reefs are circular 
in form and are called atolls. They encircle great lagoons, or 
large areas of ocean water, to which access is generally obtained 
through breaches or openings upon their leeward sides — where 
we would naturally anticipate the little corals would be most ac- 
tively at work, as they would be there less exposed to the force 
and fury of the ocean when its billows are storm-tossed. But 
Creative Wisdom has secured their services for the windward side 



THE CORALS AS BUILDERS. 213 

by making it a law of their existence not merely that they shall 
be constantly under water which is clear and of a temperature of 
not less than 68° Fahr., but that the water shall be gerated; the 
ceaseless dashing of the waves against the rocks and reefs on the 
windward side saturates them with air, as the foaming breakers 
and sparkling spray clearly indicate; and hence it is that here, 
in the ever seething, boiling, foaming waters, these silent, unob- 
trusive and seemingly unimportant creatures, with a lineage 
reaching back to " chaos and old night," are found in the great- 
est numbers, reach their highest development, and accomplish 
the best results Thus do the ocean depths below us, where by 
an alchemy far surj)assing the skill and genius of man, the little 
corals secrete from the ocean waves the limestone foundations for 
islands and continents that are yet to be, equally with the depths 
above where suns and systems of worlds revolve, forever reveal 
to the observing eye and inquiring mind the perfect and profound 
wisdom of their common Creator. 

We have spoken of the corals as builders, and in joractical re- 
sults, such they pre-eminently are, but, as Prof. Dana has shown, 
they do not labor like the bird in constructing its nest or the 
beaver in making its dam, but, by a law of their nature, they se- 
crete the corallum or coral as man makes his own bones or the 
oyster its shell, and the vast coral formations found upon the 
land and in the ocean are composed of the skeletons which they 
have left behind them. 

No costly sarcophagus of deceased royalty — no mausoleum 
which human skill and ingenuity has ever erected — no Egyptian 
pyramid rising grandly out of the shadows of four thousand de- 
parted years, can even in a remote degree rival in beauty and 
sublimity the vast and varied tumuli of these little dwellers in 
tropical and semi-tropical seas. 

The corals and corallum in extensive beds abound in the Ba- 



214 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

hama waters, and aJIord one of the principal attractions for 
those who yisit this part of Queen Victoria's possessions. We 
have seen and studied them at various times and under diiierent 
circumstances, and yet we feel, not only that our knowledge of 
them is imperfect and superficial, but that we can convey to 
others only a crude and unsatisfactory reflection of the impres- 
sion they made upon our own mind. The effect is heightened 
by all the surrounding circumstances. There is nothing to an- 
noy or produce any but pleasurable sensations, New but con- 
genial friends meet together by a subtle law of attraction, recline 
on the cushions, occupy the comfortable chairs, or sit on the cir- 
cular seats of the ''Trident," the "Gazelle" or the "Frolic." 
It is, to be sure, mid-winter, but no northern summer air ever 
seemed half so soft, soothing and voluptuous. We have not known 
each other long, and yet there is such an absence of reserve, such 
an interchange of thought, such an expression of pleasurable 
emotions, and such a telling of rich and racy anecdotes, that a 
looker-on would have sup})osed we were life-long acquaintances 
and friends. Feasting and surfeiting upon types and forms of 
beauty never seen or even imagined in our colder climes, it was 
a relief to be aided in the audible expression of delightful emo- 
tions by the combined vocabularies of our little group of ex- . 
plorers. 

Visits to the coral beds and reefs are made exceedingly attrac- 
tive by reason of the peculiar clearness and beauty of the water 
over which we sail to reach them and in which they are found. 
No snow fed mountain torrent was ever more clear and trans- 
parent, and, as the Avater-bed is white limestone, objects at the 
bottom can be seen Avith great distinctness. On one occasion of 
relatively smooth water, a mile or so outside of the bar of Nassau 
harbor, we clearly saw the bottom at a depth of about seventy 
feet. The sounding line showed seventy-six feet, but some dis- 



BEAUTIFUL SEA WATEE. 215 

count must be made, because, as our yacht was in motion, the 
line could not have been perpendicular. 

The water of the harbor is most exquisitely colored. It is a 
soft, delicate, brilliant green, wholly unlike any of the countless 
shades of green seen in tne vegetable world. AYhen the waves 
are gently rolling in a brilliant sunlight, they gleam and sparkle 
in a manner but faintly represented by the most beautifully tinted 
silks when their graceful folds are in motion under a strong light. 
It cannot be properly described upon paper, and if faithfully imi- 
tated ujDon canvass by the most gifted artist he would be charged 
by art critics and connoisseurs with painting the ideal, and with 
being color mad. One never tires of looking at it, but soon gets 
out of descriptive and eulogistic adjectives, and rests with a final 
declaration that it is a brilliant, moving, liquid, sparkling, lovely 
torquoise. At times, v/lien the winds and sunlight are particu- 
larly favorable, such color eifects are produced that practical, 
prosaic men seem to vie with the more susceptible and apprecia- 
tive ladies in their exclamations of astonishment and pleasure. 
A lady in our party on one occasion when we visited the corals, 
exclaimed while gazing, feasting and almost getting intoxicated 
upon this wonderful exhibition of color, ''What would our 
friends at home say if they could only see this ! They think that 
they know water, but they don't." 

Occasional rifts in the limestone bed of the harbor vary the 
prevailing color with ribbons of the deepest and darkest blue, 
while the ocean outside is seen to darkly mirror the softer blue 
of the sky. Often also there is at midday a warm glow above 
the horizon like that which heralds the ushering in of a new day. 

As we near the homes of the corals the foaming and dashing 
of the breakers over coral reefs and submerged rocks reminds one 
of our ]mrty of the icy spray of an Alpine avalanche, and adds a 
new and pleasing variety to the view^ while the neighboring 



216 ISLES or SUMMER. - - 

islands with honeycombed shores,' and short patches of white 
sandy beaches, also contribute other elements of beauty. The 
purple haze resting upon the island of New Providence also re- 
calls the aerial investiture of the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. 

We are soothed and lulled by a soft silvery melody, the water 
rising and singing sweetly to us as we glide along ; the music 
perfectly harmonizes with the calm and voluptuous beauty which 
nature has lavishly bestowed uj)on this favored locality. 

Snatches of poetry long concealed in some of the nooks and 
corners of the mind, and forgotten — the gathered gems of earlier 
years — emerge from their hiding places amid scenes and sur- 
roundings so congenial, (just as the beautiful and j^erfumed blos- 
soms of the arbutus awaken from their winter's sleep in the warm 
breath of the opening spring,) and we again exclaim with Fay : 

"Blow scented gale, the snowy canvass swell, 
And flow, thou gleaming eddying currert, on; 
Grieve me to bid each lovely point farewell, 
That, ere its graces half are seen, is gone. 

"Nor clouds in heaven, nor billows on the deep, 
More graceful shapes did ever have or roll, 
Nor came such pictures to a poet's sleep. 
Nor beamed such visions on a poet's soul." 

The "Marine Garden," through which the reader may remem- 
ber we passed when returning from our yachting excursion to 
test the capabilities of Sampson's Triton in a strong wind outside 
the bar, is nearer to Nassau and more accessible than any of the 
other localities where the corals abound in this vicinity. Hence 
it is the most visited and the best known. Situated between 
two islands, it is more sheltered from the wind, and the conse- 
quent comparative smoothness of the water enables the visitors 
at all times to examine it. Being a flower garden under water. 



-,fS- ' '«^ ^ %i <•/ 



7# ^/ / 






\ /, 












» V - 5^ 




yc«'*'pr^ 



j^vsii^*^^ vjs,. 






1?" 






-] HR r'= 



-.r^T'-''"^4v 



CORALS 



WHITE STONY CORALS. 

1. Aga/ricia agwriciUs. A piece from the edge of a large mass. Natural 
size. In life each hole was occupied by an animal with separate mouth and 
tentacles, but connected at the base with all the others around it. 

2. Pontes clavaria. End of a branch. Natural size. 

3. Eusmilia fastigiata. "Rose Coral." A branch. Natural size. 
Formed of four distinct animals, two of which are nearly divided across the 
middle. 

4. Millepora alcicornis. " Sea Ginger." When fresh it has a biting taste. 
A branch from a large piece. Natural size. This belongs to the Hydroids, 
a different class from most corals. In life the soft parts of the animals are 
extended through minute holes on the surface, marked by dark spots in the 
figure. 

5. Madrepora proUfera. "Finger Coral." Branch from a large piece. 
Natural size. Each animal forms a cup-shaped projection. The terminal 
one, from which those below have branched, is larger than the others. 

6. Manicina areolata. A young specimen. Natural size. Attached to 
the rock. From Agassiz's Report on Florida Reefs. 



FLEXIBLE CORALS (GORGONIAS.) 

Corals with a hard, flexible core, covered with a softer outer layer, which 
is usually brightly colored. 

1. Muricea muricata. A branch. Natural size. Light orange-color in 
life. 

2. Oorgonia flabellum. "Fan Coral." Light purple or bright yellow in 
color. A small specimen. Natural size. The black spots along the edges 
of some of the branches mark the holes from which the mouths and tentacles 
extended when the coral was alive. 

3. Gorgonia setosa. "Sea Feather." One-fourth natural size. Color, 
light pink or purple. 



"Tt. .<<"f , 1 






1^ . ^'. 






(Thi- 5 


















a 




J.K. Emerton. ^tonx natcrre . 



-'Lrnderson&Ci'isand New Haven Ct 



CORALS 



THE ^AEIXE GAEDEK. 217 

the eye cannot explore it Avhen the surface is rough. Each boat 
is therefore provided with " water glasses," wooden boxes about 
eight or ten inches square, open at the top, with window 
glass bottoms ; to the boxes are attached wooden handles from 
eighteen inches to three feet long. Holding this little instru- 
ment over the side of a boat at anchor, in such a manner that 
the glass bottom is immersed, the observer who looks through 
the open end of the water glass can see all the '^ wonders of the 
deep " in the line of his vision as plainly as he could if no water 
intervened. 

This marine garden is made uj) of the most exquisite submerged 
coral bowers and grottoes, which rival the choicest productions 
of the floral world in form and color. We can hardly believe 
our eyes when such charming and unexpected beauties are first 
revealed by the water glass. The madrepora or branching coral 
is very abundant, and is here and there seen of a large size. The 
astrasa or brain coral also abounds, and masses of it are seen many 
feet in diameter. Alcyonoid jjolyps, (delicate coral shrubs,) vie 
with the gay, varied and luxuriant algae in decorating the garden 
with their curious growths. They are peculiarly delicate in form, 
graceful in motion, and attractive in color. The gorgonias or 
sea-fans, also diversified in size and color, unite with the large 
clusters of tall, purple sea-feathers in challenging the admiration 
of all beholders, as they gracefully wave in the clear water like 
tall flowering shrubs in the wind. 

Sponges are here also seen, clustered and combined in their 
little miniature cities, and immovably fastened to the rocky shelf 
upon which the warm, clear, beautiful waters rest. New and 
exquisite forms of coral beauty startle and charm us as our yacht 
slowly circles round her anchor in difEerent portions of this curi- 
ous nautical exhibition. Into deep alcoves and recesses, and far 
under shelving masses of corals, we inquiringly gaze, but an im- 

18 



S18 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 

penetrable mystery hides in the shadows where no sunlight enters, 
and, by a most striking contrast, helps to glorify and adorn the 
beautiful and unique forms that the light reveals. 

New and wonderful combinations of these (to us) strange forms 
of marine animal and vegetable life, when first observed and 
closely studied, is the occasion of new expressions of delight. If 
sea-nymphs and ocean fairies exist anywhere in the world of 
waters, their chosen home should surely be in these coral bowers 
and grottoes; and if they are ever embodied, their outward adorn- 
ments cannot in color surpass that of the fish Ave saw sporting in 
the sunlight, and darting into the dark recesses of this beautiful 
submerged coral world. Exquisite in form, the perfection of 
gracefulness in motion, the peers of birds of gayest jalumage in 
color, they seemed specially adapted to harmonize with, and grace 
and adorn this lovely spot. As with water, so "our friends at 
home think they know fish — but they don't." Some are brilliant 
yellow, others a rich scarlet, and others a glossy indigo blue. 
Here are seen fish in suits of emerald green, and others in clerical 
"black. Costumes of satin and silver may also be observed. Be- 
sides all these there is in the piscatory dwellers among the corals 
a most gorgeous color display, resulting from the ringing and 
striping and fringing and tipping and spotting of the fish. In- 
deed, it seems as if all the tints of the floral world and of the 
rainbow had been used in the most perfect and lavish manner 
to beautify and adorn these small specimens of the native dwellers 
of the ocean world. One of these, most gorgeously colored, was 
brought to us in a pail of sea water at our hotel, and we had an 
opportunity to more critically examine it. It was six inches long. 
Capt. Sampson called it the humming bird fish. We bottled it 
in alcohol, but its beautiful colors soon faded away. A descrip- 
tion of some of tliese remarkable fauna of the sea the reader will 
find in the next chapter of this book. The real in the coral 
bowers is more e-oro-eous than the ideal. 



THE AQTTAEIUMS. 219 

Besides the coral beds there are two '*■ aquariums," as they are 
very appropriately termed, in the harbor of IN'assau, easily acces- 
sible, which few, if any, of Nassau's visitors fail to see. One 
consists of the keel and small portions of the attached ribs of a 
Avrecked vessel lying upon the bottom of the harbor. The other 
IS Avhat is left of another vessel wrecked not far from the first, 
with its load of lime in barrels; these barrels are distinctly seen 
in the clear Avater. Great quantities of fish like those we have 
partially described, are at all times to be seen swimming in and 
around these old wrecks; as the coral bowers are so much more 
beautiful, we conclude they are here not from choice but from 
compulsion, and that they have been driven out of the Marine 
Gardens of Eden to these forbidding-looking places on account 
of their piscatory '^ indiscretions." Possibly they colonized for 
want of sufficient room. Perhaps, like ourselves, they are ''on 
an excursion." It may be that they have some religious system 
and are here doing penance for real or imagined sins, or hope to 
secure divine favor by thus renouncing the gay world in which 
the voluptuous marine Epicureans are indulging. For surely no 
one can doubt that living, as such fish for the most part do, in a 
little world of more than oriental magnificence of fact and fable, 
they have a delicate and refined taste and an esthetic nature 
which peculiarly fits them for the enjoyment of nature's most 
lavish gifts to them of the beautiful in form and color. 

Another marine garden very much visited is called "the coral 
reef. " Being much farther off, and lying to the windward, in 
a position more exposed to the ocean, it is only occasionally that 
there is such a combination of force and direction of Avind as to 
favor a visit to the reef. It must be sufficiently fair to enable 
the yacht to go and return in a certain limited time, and not so 
strong as to make rough sea. The water at this reef being more 
aerated, the corals thrive better, and their A^orks are on a more 



220 ISLES OF SUMMEE, 

extensive scale. Here the branching coral of a large size is very 
abundant — a variety familiar to all our readers. "When taken 
from the water, it is of a light drab or yellow color, and for 
a while has a disagreeable odor, both of which it loses when ex- 
posed for a time to the air and the sunlight. We took the lib- 
erty to give this "reef" a better descriptive name, and, with the 
permission of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, and of her official 
representatives in the Bahamas, to call it, " Coral Bowers and 
Grottoes " — for such it literally is. It is the " Marine Garden " 
enlarged and magnified. It abounded with "wood paths wild," 
in miniature forests of coral, — dark recesses in groves that 
gleamed in brightness and beauty— alcoves carved in forms gro- 
tesque but beautiful, and profusely ornamented — vaulted isles 
of an architectural design and finish that dwarfed and belittled 
the products of human skill and genius — cave openings, elabo- 
rately wrought and strangely configured and adorned, yawning 
beneath coral banks and bowers wild and endlessly varied — all 
constituting a vast natural aquarium, the home of large numbers 
of fish like those seen in the Marine G-arden, brilliantly and most 
gorgeously colored, which bore the same relation to the little 
aquariums that man makes that the vast and magnificent tropi- 
cal forests, clothed in perennial green, adorned Avith graceful 
vines, teeming with flowers of every hue, and vocal with count- 
less birds of the most varied and of the richest plumage, bear to 
a lady's little but luxurious boudoir, with its evergreen branches, 
climbing vines and captive birds in their small but gilded cages. 
Turning our eyes upward, surfeited as they were with the truly 
wonderful display below the surface of the water, it was restful 
to look again at the soft but resplendent beauty of the blue heav- 
ens, here and there draped Avitli light curtains of satin and silver, 
and at the gcm-Iike setting in the green and blue Avaters of the 
islands^, keys and rocks, Avith their varied outlines and colors 



*rHE CORAL t>Ei!)S. ^§1 

Visible m every direction, while we inhaled, meanwhile an at- 
mosphere delightfully cooled and medicated by the ocean, and 
yet sufficiently warm to saturate us with an indolence we could 
not shake ofE, and with a feeling of languid and voluptuous ease, 
satisfaction and content. We seemed tenants of a new world 
where ambition is unknown and the passions are either dead or 
lost in a sleep profound and dreamless. Let not the reader for 
a moment indulge in any suspicions that this picture is over- 
drawn, for it is not within the power of any man to so color his 
descriptions of the coral bowers as to convey any pro|)er idea of 
their marvelous beauty, or to do justice to the original. The 
most gifted pen can only caricature nature's perfect works. He 
who is not greatly exhilarated, excited and charmed while view- 
ing the coral beds of the Bahamas, under the favoring circum-' 
stances which we have attempted to describe, is certainly color 
blind, and, as H. W. Beecher would say, ''dead in the eye." In 
the language of Shakespeare, when speaking of music, ''let no 
such man be trusted." 

On a charming forenoon in March, 1879, when sailing in the 
" Gazelle " in a very light wind, we were for the first time be- 
calmed just as we came to anchor over a large bed of coral to 
which we were piloted by Capt. Johnson, of the existence of 
which we were until then ignorant. For half an hour the wind 
failed to make itself felt, and the water was perfectly smooth 
and glassy. To our great joy we found that we could stand up- 
on the deck of our yacht and see, without water glasses or any 
artificial aid, an extensive tract of corals with their swarms of 
beautiful fish, and even the shadows of some of them on the 
white bottom of the harbor, at a distance, we judged, of about 
twenty-five feet from the surface. Among the corals we observed 
here, as elsewhere, many algae, gorgonias and sponges growing 
upon the limestone floor to which they were attached. One 



3^2 ISLES OF 8ITMMEE.- 

sponge was of the size and shape of a half bushel basket. It waS 
secured for us, but proved to be old and rotten. 

Here also, as in the '^ Marine Garden," and in the ''coral 
bowers and grottoes," way down in the edges of the lowest and 
darkest shadows, we occasionally observed fishes repulsive in form 
and diabolical in expression, whose movements were most de- 
cidedly stealthy and suspicious. What business had they to grope 
in the caverns and peer into the sunlight? What was their mis- 
sion in the gardetfof the sea gods? Were they piscatory bull 
dogs to gnard and protect, or piscatory demons bent on marring 
a happiness which their loAver nature was unfitted to enjoy? 

Our crew consisted in part of exj^ert divers, who, as soon as we 
anchored over or near to a coral bed, entered the little forecastle, 
and soon re-appeared in costumes, not of Parisian, but of the 
Garden of Eden cut — and truly ''Solomon in all his glory was 
not arrayed like one of these." When a growth of coral was dis- 
covered by any one of the passengers, peculiarly beautiful and 
coveted, the diver immediately plunged overboard and soon de- 
tached and brought it to the surface, unless it proved to be too 
large and heavy, or too securely fastened for his strength. It 
is a novel and very amusing spectacle, and we could not refrain 
from speculating upon the probable impression these black in- 
truders made upon the gay and sportive dwellers in coral bowers. 
If to us they seemed like imps of destruction, marring a beauty 
they could not make, and distnrbing a felicity they could not 
appreciate or enjoy, no doubt the little gorgeous finny philoso- 
phers Avere not only shocked and appalled by the desecration and 
destruction which they witnessed, but sorely puzzled to reconcile 
it with their ideas of what infinite justice and goodness should 
either do or permit. 

Slowly moving out into view from under cover at the base of 
the corals there is seen at times the sea-urchin, a shell fish from 



SEA tJECHIN-S. LIFE IK THE ROCK. 323 

two to four inches in diameter, which bristles with long, black, 
needle-like spines. When these spines are removed it is seen to 
be a shell-fish, round -but flat like a large biscuit, very prettily 
shaped and marked. The negroes daily bring these shells to the 
court of the hotel and sell them to visitors under the name of 
"sea eggs." 

These curiously armed shell-fish appear to perform police duty, 
and their sharp spines often cause the colored intruder discom- 
fited to retire. One of our divers was made quite lame by one 
of these creatures, the broken spine in his foot irritating and in- 
flaming the flesh, and requiring for its proper removal the in- 
struments and skill of the surgeon. 

The barbs with which the spines are covered, are like so many 
minute fish hooks; they readily admit the entrance of the spines 
into the flesh of man or fish, but prevent their removal; so that 
as an enemy, although small, they are somewhat formidable. 

In consulting the works that have been occasionally published 
concerning the Bahamas, we have been astonished at finding in 
them so little in regard to the great clearness and brilliant hues 
of the water, and the strange and exquisitely beautiful sub-aque- 
ous world which the water glass reveals. Catesby appears to 
have seen and described more than most, if not all, the authors 
who have succeeded him. 

There was occasionally brought to us by the divers specimens 
of corals and gorgonias with some of the soft coraline rock to 
which they adhered, and to which they seemed rooted, and we 
were surprised to see that these fragments of the rocky floor of 
the sea gardens abounded with worms and other forms of life. 
Mr. Phelps states that he broke a large piece of this rock into 
small fragments, and found in it a number of small crabs, two 
or three small star fishes, three or more shrimps, three worms 
organized like a centiped, and some monopod worms. He be^ 



224 ISLES OF SUMMED. 

lieved it contained not less than fifty liring creatures. Channels 
had also been cut in the stone six inches deep, by stone-boring 
mollusks. When Capt. Basil Hall wrote a description of the 
corals in his ''Voyage to the Islands of Loo Choo," which the 
author of ''The Pelican Island" used as a text for his poem, he 
evidently supposed that corallum is the work of the " worms of 
different lengths and colors" with which the bottom rock is 
"full," — hence the great mistake which both authors made. 

We deem it not improbable that it will ultimately be discovered 
that corals, as well as sponges, can be artificially propagated; if 
so, we see no reason why the more valuable red varieties may not 
be successfully cultivated in the Bahama waters. The colonial 
government, at a small expense, can by wise legislation cause 
experiments looking to such a result to be made. The old world 
has colonized the new with men, choice live stock, delicious fruits 
and destructive insects — why should it not give us its superior 
sponges and corals? 

Eeferring the reader to the excellent work of Prof. Dana, upon 
" Corals and Coral Islands," for full and complete information 
from a scientific standpoint upon the subject of this chapter, we 
take leave of the corals for the present, fully aware that we have 
hardly crossed the threshold where we would have been only too 
happy, had we been able, to fully enter and thoroughly explore. 



ECHINODERMS. 

i. EcMnanthus rosaceus. Upper side. One-third natural size, covered 
with short purple or olive spines V7hen alive. 

2. Orea&ter gigas. It is sometimes more than a foot in diameter. Covered 
with hard knobs connected by low ridges. Bright red or orange, when alive. 

3, 4. Cidaris tribuloides. 4. A small specimen in its natural state. 
3. The same after the spines have been removed, showing the knobs to which 
they are attached. One-half natural size. 

5, Diadema setomm. A "Sea Egg" with very long spines. Black, or 
banded with black and yellow. When the spines are removed it resembles 
fig. 3, but the knobs are smaller and more numerous. One-half natural size. 



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EGHINODERMS 



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CHAPTER XIII. 

T?ie Extent of the World of Waters and its Wonderful Fauna. Bahama 
Fishes. Some Eminently Bistinguislied for their Brilliant Colors, and Others 
for their Singularity, described. Fish that are Poisonous. Table Fish. The 
Bahaynas Bich in Beautiful Mollusks. They Ha/r^monize with the other Ex- 
quisite Forms of Life, and loith the Brilliant Waters. The Shores Paved xdth 
Shells Wonderfid in Form and Colm\ The Conch. 

' ' In the free element beneath us swarm 
Fishes of every color, form, and kind, — 
Strange forms, resplendent colors, kinds unnumbered— 
Which language cannot paint, and mariner 
Hath never eleswhere seen. " — Montgomery. 

When" we consider that the sea occupies more than two-thirds 
01 the earth's surface ; that its normal temperature is, from 
the equator to the arctic circle, nearly uniform every where, 
below a few hundred perpendicular feet of its surface; that its 
depths are most profound, being measured by miles; that al- 
though it is for man's convenience geographically divided, and 
called by different names, yet that all the so-called oceans are 
in fact onp. and that it abounds throughout the whole of its vast 
extent ^\ . _. c^nimals that are created and fitted to live in the 
water as others are upon the land, we cannot fail to see that in 
all probability its fauna is far more extensive and varied than 
that of the land, and that man's knowledge concerning it is very 
meagre, superficial and imperfect. It is quite recently that the 
gigantic cuttle fish has been taken out of the realm of fable and 

235 



226 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

placed in the wide domain of fact. While Victor Hugo's '' deYil 
fisli/' closely resembles, in many particulars; the gigantic cuttle 
fish, yet, to some extent, it is a creature which the imagination 
has constructed upon a substantial basis of fact. A scientific 
gentleman, learned in all the piscatory learning of the present 
day, stated in our jDresence before the Connecticut Academy of 
Arts and Sciences, that he had no doubt of the existence of the 
sea serpent, and that before many years it will be captured and 
ciitically examined by scientific experts. There is something 
truly grand in the movements of the monsters of the deep 
through the vast depths and immense spaces of the great world 
of waters. But it is apparent that while some fish are able to 
wander at will in various directions around the world, others are 
localized by their necessities, and complete their little circle of 
life very near their family spawning ground. Hence the water 
that surrounds the Isles of Summer, and that covers the Banks 
out of which they rise, has its own peculiar and wonderful fauna, 
some glimpses of which were revealed to us while we were look- 
ing through the water glasses at the corals, and th^ curious and 
wonderful forms of life Avhich surround and adorn them. 

Many of these fish Mr. Phelps secured and preserved, and 
having carefully and critically examined them at his home in 
Vermont, and closely studied them both in and out of the water 
during his five montlis stay in ISTassau, he has furnished us de- 
tailed descriptions of some of them, which we have utilized. We 
have edited his notes, and shaped them somewhat to fill the 
limited space that we have been able to spare for them in a vol- 
ume which treats of so many other subjects. We did not our- 
selves make the fish a special object of study. We have retained, 
' as far as possible, the language of Mr. Phelps, and to him and 
Mr. Cafcesby should be given credit for whatever of merit there 
may be in nearly all our piscatory pen pictures. 



"The Rainhoio fish is from six to twelve inclies long. Its color 
is a, dark green. Its scales are largo, and their tinted margins 
reflect the light in all the colors of the rain-bow — -hence its name. 
Its teeth are like those of the bluefish, with two plates npon each 
jaw, which protrude from its lips. 

The Parrot fish is most brilliantly colored. It is principally 
of a bluish green, with purple marks on the back and near the 
mouth, and yellow and red marks near the tail. The scales are 
edged with a dark wine color. 

Oatesby's description of it is more full; he says the body of the 
Parrot fish is covered with large green scales; the eye is red and 
yellow; the upper part of the head brown, the lower part and 
gills blue, bordered with dusky red; a streak of red extends from 
the tail to behind the gills, at the upper end of which there is a 
bright yellow spot. It has five fins; one extends almost the 
length of the back, and is of a bay or cinnamon color; there are 
two behind tlie gills blended with black, green and purplish col- 
ors, with their edge verged with blue. Under the abdomen is 
another red fin, verged with blue; under the anus extends another 
long, narrow green fin, with a list of red through the middle of 
it. At the basis of the tail, on each side, is a large yellow spot. 
The tail is large, forked, and green, with a curved line running 
through the middle, parallel to the curve of the tail, and ending 
in white points. It is more remarkable for its beauty than es- 
teemed for delicacy. 

The Spanish Hog fish is about ten inches in length, and weighs 
about one pound. The color of its upper j^ortion — being all above 
a line drawn from the extremity of the dorsal fin to the pectoral 
fin — is a dark purple wine color, with dark brown bands on the 
edges of the tail; below this line the color is yellow, deepening 
in some places into orange. It is beautiful but poisonous. 

The Yellow ^^i^e^^^sA is unsurpassed for the admiration which 



H^^ iSLfeS OF sumM'er. 

its beauty elicits. Colored plates are necessary to give any ade- 
quate idea of the wealth of coloring with which it is endowed, 
The body is short and high. The dorsal and anal fins are yery 
large, protruding at the anterior parts, and thick at the base and 
corners with scales, so that they seem to be a continuation of the 
body. The scales are large and delicate, of a brov/n color, with 
a shade of olive green, and each of them is edged with a lighter 
tint. The chin, nape, upper eyelid, base of the pectoral and 
neutral fins, and the margin of the dorsal and anal fins are a 
bright cobalt blue, with lines of the same color extending over 
the operculum. The caudal fin, and the continuation or append- 
age of the longest spines of the dorsal and anal fins are bright 
yellow. The motions of this, as of all the other angel fish, are 
slow, and it is usually to be seen about the docks, reefs, and old 
wrecks. Its flesh is not mucli prized. 

The Blach Angel fish is of a much larger size than the preced- 
ing, and is of an uniform black color. The inner surfaces of the 
pectoral fins and the margin of the tail are of a bright yellow. 

The Spaiiish Angel fish is one of the most beautiful of fishes. 
The anterior part of the body is a jet black, while the posterior 
and tail are a light yellow. The edges of the gills, and margin 
of the tail are a salmon red color. It is seldom over five inches 
in length, and is caught in nets and traps, its mouth being too 
small and delicate for the hook. 

Catesby truthfully says, that this fisli is ''gorgeous, and may 
be called the butterfly of the sea, it is so beautiful." 

The Moon or G resent Angel fish has a body much compressed 
and elevated. It has six dark vertical bauds. Tlie third dorsal 
spine is elongated, and the anterior portion of the dorsal and anal 
fins are protruding. The four cresent-shuped marks on the body 
are of a bright yellow, the margin of the tail is edged with the 
pme tint. It sometimes is found eighteen inches long. 



feEAtJTii'UL i'ifeS. ^39 

'The Four-Eyed Angel fish has a black spot on each side of its 
tail. The fishermen believe these spots to be an extra pair of 
eyes — hence its name. The color of the body is a pearly gray; 
the yertical fins are a bright yellow, and a black band runs across 
the eye. It has a nearly circular outline, with a projecting and 
protruding snout. It is a delicate, graceful fish. It is seen 
among the sea-feathers, and around the coral reefs. It seldom 
exceeds four inches in length, and must be caught with net or 
trap, as its mouth is too small for the hook. 

The Bahama Turhot is of a bright bluish green above, and of 
an orange and orange blue beneath. The dorsal and anal fins 
are very large, and these, with the tail, have long continuations, 
all of which are of a dark green color. There is a light green 
band between the tail and bodj^ Extending round from the 
mouth are two curved, slate-tinted marks running back to the 
gills. The pectoral fins are small. From the eyes radiate slen- 
der umber-brown lines, some of which pass around in front of 
the head from eye to eye. The scales are very rough and strong, 
and are often used for scouring and polishing wood and metals. 
The first dorsal fin is very prominent; the first spine, being very 
stout, is often used as a weapon. The body is very much de- 
pressed, and resembles that of the angel fish. 

The Trumpet or Unicorn fish, much resembles the turbot in 
structure, but its body is more elongated and compressed, being 
about twenty-four inches in length, and nearly half an inch in 
thickness. Unlike the turbot, the dorsal and anal fins are very 
transparent, with a slight yellow tinge. The tail is long and very 
small; the mouth is situated on the upper edge of the snout; the 
teeth are large and compact; the color is a light ash tint, with 
many peculiar lines and marks of a light slate blue; a long slen- 
der spine rises from the head — hence its name. The scales are 
minute and resemble those of the shark. 

»0 



S36 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

Catesby says tliat this fisli is sometimes three feet long; that 
it is shaped like a rolling-pin, and tapers towards the head and 
tail; that it can raise, and point backwards and forwards at its 
pleasure, the tapering sharp pointed bone that is found a little 
behind the eyes, but that this bone is brittle and easily broken. 
He also states that this fish feeds on shells and coralline sub- 
stances, and is considered poisonous, and is found where corals 
are plentiful. 

The Coio fish is from five to twenty inches in length. The 
appearance of this fish is exceedingly queer and comical. This 
is especially true of its face, which is that of its great namesalvc 
in small miniature. Whether this shell fish has infringed upon 
the cow's facial copyright, or the cow upon that of this odd fish, 
we are unable to decide. Its body is shaped like a beech nut, 
being triangular. The shell in which it is entirely enclosed (ex- 
cept the lips, base of fins, hind part of tail and eyes), is composed 
of hexagonal osseous scales; the parts excepted are covered with 
a soft skin; over each eye there is a prominent conical spine, 
which |)oints straight forward, and helps much to give the face 
of the fish its cow-like appearance. On each neutral ridge there 
is a flat spine directed backward. The caropace is of a rich, 
bright blue color, with brown lines, and is very beautiful when 
seen in a good light, but it changes a good deal and the colors 
soon vanish after death. Its motions are slow and cautious, and 
it sometimes ejects water from its mouth to a distance of four 
feet. 

The Triangular fish or Cuckold Shell-fish, (as it is called by 
the natives), is about twelve inches in length, and sometimes 
weighs two pounds. The integuments of the body are modified 
into a three ridged caropace, composed of hexagonal osseous 
scales. The snout-like mouth, the basis of the fins, and the 
hind part of the tail are covered by soft skin. On each neutral 



BEArTIFUL Pis:tf. S31 

ridge is a flat prominent spine, directed backwards. The color 
is quite cliangeable; it is usually of a bluish cast, with brown 
spots and marks. It is a slow swimmer, and is often seen rest- 
ing on the bottom. It will live several hours out of water with- 
out undergoing any apparent change, but when returned to the 
water, it is at first unable to sink to the bottom on account of 
the air it has absorbed. Its pectoral fins are constantly in mo- 
tion, apparently for the purpose of fanning a current of water 
through the gills. Its flesh is of a light color, and its appeai'- 
ance and taste is like the breast of a chicken. It is best baked, 
but is said to be at times poisonous. 

The Squirrel fish is very beautiful. Its color is scarlet, and in 
brightness exceeds that of the gold fish. Its body is elongated 
and slightly compressed. Its head is well proportioned, and has 
prominent spines. It swims quickly and vivaciously. The local 
name refers to a noise uttered by it which resembles the bark 
of a squirrel. It is very common in the Bahamas, and is usually 
the angler's first prize. It is little valued as a table fish on ac- 
count of its small size. 

The JJind is a very common and very handsome fish, and some- 
times attains a length of eighteen inches. It is of a brownish or 
rosy-white color, and is marked with numerous deep rose-red 
spots. Being very voracious, it is easily caught. Its flesh is 
finely flavored, and is seldom, if ever, poisonous. 

The Blue fish is from ten to eighteen inches long, and weighs 
about two pounds. Its color is ultramarine, v\^ith a few pink 
marks about the head and eyes. Catesby says the iris of its 
eyes is red. Its scales are relatively large, and are used in the 
manufacture of fancy work. 

The Bone fish has scales which are used in making the most 
exquisite fancy work. The scales, after being washed in several 
waterS; are cut into the desired shape, and pierced in two places 



232 ISLES OF SUMMEK. 

for the very small silver wires with which they are fastened. 
Several weeks time is required to make a single scale basket. 

The Alewife is of a greenish color, and is closely allied to 
Slippery Dick. 

The Great Hog Fish is named from its swine-like profile and 
dentition. Its body is compressed and elevated; its snout point- 
ed; its dorsal fin protruding, and its skin resembles brown and 
red marble, being light beneath. When it swims, the dorsal fins 
and their long streamer-like appendages give it a- singular and 
graceful appearance. It is quite common, attains a length of 
thirty inches, and a weight of thirty pounds. Its flesh is hard, 
white and exquisitely flavored, and it is numbered among the 
choicest table fish. 

The School blaster is fifteen inches in length, weighs three 
to four pounds, and its color is an attractive bronze. It is not 
a safe table fish. 

The Porcupine Fish, or Sea Hedge Hog, is a truly wonderful 
creature on account of its peculiar armor, and of its capacity to 
swallow either air or water, and thereby become ball-shaped. 
Its body is covered with triangular plates, from each of which 
rises a sharp spine, and some of the spines are an inch in length. 
"When alarmed, it fills its body with air or water, thereby assum- 
ing a globular form, erects all its spines, and presents a formid- 
able appearance. In this position it resembles an immense ches- 
nut burr. Its color is brown above and light beneath, with spots 
of darker brown near the operculum. One of the smaller ones 
which Mr. Phelps secured, he says, was five inches long, and four 
inches in diameter. 

The Swell Fish, or Puffer, is of an olive green color, and its 
surface is roughened with prickles. Its body is oblong and cylin- 
drical. It derives its name from the swollen ball-like shape which 
it assumes when taken from the water, and irritated. It is from 



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latli.l mJ.-'rscmAC-us-ar'.l Ife >• iUvon 0'. 



FISHES. 



FISHES. 

1. Echends alUcauda, " Sucker," from "Storer's Fishes of Mass." One- 
fourth natural size. Attaches itself to other fishes by the sucker on its head. 

2. Fistularia tabaceai-ia, "Trumpet Fish." One-fourth natural size. 

3. Malthea vespertUio, "Bat Fish." One-half natural size. 

4. OorypJicena Mppurus, "Dolphin." Colors, metallic green and yellow 
with black spots. Remarkable for its changes of color when taken from the 
water. 

5. Zygana tudes. "Hammer-head Shark." 

6. GMlomycterus reticulahis, "Porcupine Fish." One-fourth natural size. 

7. OsPrcKion quadricornis, "Trunk Fish," " Cow Fish." One-fourth nat- 
ural size. This and the last are drawn from stuffed specimens. 

8. Chmtodon striatus, "Angel Fish." One-half natural size. 

9. Eques laneeolatus. One-half natural size. 
Figures 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 9 are reduced from Cuvier. 







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Lit>L?i.mder3oii-(j.Crisan!l.Me-.v Haven ot 



FISHES. 



THE SUCKIKG FISH. POISON'OUS FISH. 233 

six to tTFelye inches long, but has no value as a table fish. It is 
abundant near Nassau, and is sometinies called the Globe fish. 

The Sucking fish has a flattened disk on the upper part of its 
head, into which the first dorsal fin is transformed. This disk 
is composed of numerous transverse, cartilaginous, movable 
jDlates. By means of the suction or adhesive power of this disk, 
its owner fastens to a shark or other free and far-roving swimmer, 
'^dead-heads " itself about the ocean Avithout any labor or expense 
to itself, visits distant seas, and forages its supjDlies from the 
marine monsters that provide it, nolens volens, with a free, un- 
limited traveling ticket for life. This is the fisher fish to which 
we have heretofore referred. 

Catesby says it is a foot in length, and that its head is equal 
in size to its body; that "^ the crown of its head is flat, and of an 
oval form, with a ridge of rising, running longitudinal and cross- 
ways to its sixteen ridges, with hollow intervals between, by which 
structure it can fasten itself to any animal or other substance;" 
that he has taken ''five of them off the body of a shark, which 
were fixed so fast to diflierent parts of its body, that it required 
great strength to separate them;" that he has "seen them dis- 
engaged and swimming very deliberately near the sharks without 
the latter attempting to swallow them." 

Some of the Bahama fish are very poisonous. We were told 
by a Nassau gentleman that in some cases the question of the 
safety of eating certain fish depends upon the place where they 
are caught — the same kind of fish being in one j)lace wholesome, 
and poisonous in another. Some are said to be safe for the table 
only when young. It is probable from these facts that the fish 
are poisoned by their food, but whether that food is of a min- 
eral nature, (which we are inclined to doubt,) or vegetable or 
animal, we are not informed. Very likely some localities pro- 
duce marine vegetable growths which are poisonous to the fish 



234 iSLfiS 0%' sr-MMER. 

that feed upon them. As some kinds oi Bahama fish are always 
poisonous, these may infect other fish when they happen occa- 
sionally to dine upon them. The toad fish is so poisonous that 
in one case the exhalation from it severely affected a gentleman 
who was mounting it. 

Flying Fish are very plentiful in the Bahama waters. While 
yachting outside of Nassau harbor, and during our steamship 
voyages between Florida and the islands, it was an agreeable 
pastime to observe them. They looked like small birds, and 
skimmed along above the water like flocks of ducks, maintaining 
themselves in the air for so long a period of time that those not 
familiar with them would naturally suppose them to be a species 
of water fowl. Catesby says that this singular fish has a somewhat 
long and round body, and a small mouth, without teeth; that 
the two fins behind the gills are extraordinarily large, and spread 
very wide; that upon the hind part of its back there is another 
small fin; that under it there is a fourth one, thin, large and 
forked; that its scales are like those of the herring, but of a darker 
color; that, as they are a prey to both fish and fovfls, nature has 
given them large fins which serve them not only for swimming, 
but for flight, and that it is a good table fish. 

The Rudder Fish is described by the same author as being 
quite small, but able, notwithstanding, to keep pace with ships 
of the largest class. The upper part of its body is brown, with 
large specks of dusky yellow. The under part of its body is. 
alternately streaked with white and yellow. He adds that in 
crossing the ocean, ships are seldom free from them. 

The Murray, says Mr. Catesby, in its structure resembles the 
common eel; the iris of the eye is white; two fleshy barbels hang 
from the nostrils; a fin with an even white ridge begins behind 
the head, and extends the whole length of the back. The whole 
body is covered with a light gray skin, sprinkled with innumer- 



CEPHALOPODS. 

1. Lo%o P/m, "Cuttle Fish." One of the " Squids." One-half natural 
size. Color light yellow with dark spots, changeable. Reduced from D'Or- 
bigny's figure. 

2. Octopus vulgai-is, "DewWYish." One-fourth natural size. A specimen 
with arms five feet long is said to have been found at Nassau. Color, dark pur- 
ple and reddish brown, changeable. Reduced and altered from D'Orbigny's 
figure. 



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fHfi CtTTTLE FISH. 2o5 

able black spots. One kind of this fish is green and spotted in 
the same manner with the black; perhaps it is of a diiferent sex 
only. He adds — ''the inhabitants of the Bahamas will eat only 
the green sort; they reject the black as poisonous. It is custom- 
ary for this fish, as they lie lurking among the hollow rocks and 
corals, to bite peoples' legs that are exposed to them, though the 
bite is of no other ill consequence than fetching blood. " 

The Mutton Jish, he also states, for the excellence of its taste, 
is in greater demand than any other at the Bahama islands. It 
has five fins ; a long spiny one on its back, like that of the perch, 
of an amber color. The ujoper part of its head is a dusky black; 
the irides of the eye are a bright red; the upper part of the back 
is a dark reddish brown, the red brightening gradually to the 
portion below, which is Avhite, faintly traced with red. The gills 
are shaded partly with purple and red. 

The common Cuttle fish, {Loligo special,) is found in the 
vicinity of Nassau. It has two large prominent eyes of a greenish 
hue — one upon each side of its head; eight arms project out from 
its head and surround its mouth. These arms have on their 
inner sides rows of suckers in the form of muscular cup-like discs 
with serrated edges, with which the animal can strongly fasten 
itself to any living or inanimate object within its reach. It is 
also armed with two long tentacles which push out from the head 
and resemble the arms, but exceed them in length. At the end 
of each tentacle or long arm there is a sort of fingerless hand, 
armed also with suckers. This curious creature has a sack in 
which it secretes a brown or black fluid, which contains a large 
amount of a carbonaceous pigment, (''5e/»«a,") and various min- 
eral salts. When pursued by an enemy, this colored fluid is dis- 
charged in jets, and by means of its color, and perhaps by reason 
of its offensive character, it aids the cuttle fish in escaping from 
or contending with enemies who are not prepared for this kind 



S3 6 ISLES OF STJMMEft. 

of sub-marine warfare. The coloring matter of its '"'°' ink^' is r^vf 
indestructibie, and has been handed down with fossils from a far 
distant geologic age. In making sepia paint it was formerly 
utilized. The cuttle fish is a kind of sea acrobat, and frequently 
walks by the aid of its arms upon, the bottom of the sea, not ex- 
actly ujDon its head, but head downwards. When troubled, its 
arms enable it also, Avhile in a perpendicular position, to swim 
through the water. 

The integument of the cuttle fish consists of several layers, 
one of which (corresponding to the lowest layer of the epider- 
mis) contains numerous large cells Avliich are filled with pigment 
granules; and the expansion and contraction of these cells causes 
the marvelous play of changing colors, Avhich the cuttle fish ex- 
hibits when excited. 

A gentleman who was recently gathering algae in the harbor 
of Nassau, unintentionally shook hands with a cuttle fish which 
was clinging to a rock in the water. He mistook it for a rare 
marine plant, and experienced considerable difficulty in inducing 
his new piscatory acquaintance to let go. The latter was finally 
disabled and captured. We are informed that another species of 
the cuttle fish is found near Nassau. 

The star fish and other members of the family of radiates are 
found in the waters of the Bahamas. 

Mr. Sargeant, in giving some account of the Bahama fish, says: 

" The hound fish are shaped very much like an eel, for which 
it is a good substitute. It is semi-transparent, with bones re- 
sembling light blue glass thread. Its snout or bill is often eight 
or ten inches long, slim and sharp, with a row of teeth running 
the entire length on either side. The maray and stingray are a 
species of the eel. The whipray has a body shaped like a floun- 
der, with a tail often ten feet long, tapering from about one inch 
in diameter at the butt, to one-eighth of an inch at the small end. 




il L'lrtierton ftonijn^iL 



■lUuFiuiJoi'soTi ' Cns-and "NTe-A'Havsri 



SNAIL SHELLS. 



SHELLS OF MOLLUSKS. 

1. Tectwrius muricatus. Natural size. Color gray and purple. 

2. Uvanilla. Natural size. Color yellow and pearly white. 

3. Scalaria. Natural size. Color light brown, with a silky lustre. Ribs 
white. 

4. Triton va/riegatus. " Trumpet Shell." One-third natural size. Brown, 
with dark spots. 

5. Cassis cameo. "King Conch." One-quarter natural size. The smooth 
lip is light brown, with dark brown markings. From this species of shell 
cameos are cut. 

6. Cyp^^cea exanthema. "Cowrie." One-half natural size. Brown, with 
white spots. 

7. Strowbhus bituberculatus. "Small Conch." One-half natural size. In- 
side of the lip white and pink. 

8. Solarium granulatum. Top view. Natural size. Color gray, with 
brown and white stripes. 

9. Fasdolaria tulipa. One-third natural size. White, with brown spots 
and spiral lines. 

10. Oliva litterata. Natural size. Polished white, with brown zig-zag 
lines. 

11. Janira ziczac. Ooe of the "Scollops." One-half natural size. Color, 
brown. 

13. The same seen from the side. Lower valve neaiiy flat. 

13. TelUna radiata. "Rising Sun." Natural size. White or pale yel- 
low, with pink radiating stripes. 

14. Callista maculata. Natural size. Light brown with darker spots. 

15. Pecten nodosus. A "Scollop." One-half natural size. Dark red. 

16. Byssoarca Nom. "Noah's Ark." One-half natural size. Brown and 
white, partly covered with a rough epidermis. 

17. Ameula Atlantica. One-half natural size. Color, brown and green. 
Rough on the outside and pearly within. 

18. Ostrma folium. " Racoon Oyster." Attached to root of a mangrove 
tree growing in the water. Small specimen. Natural size. 

19. GMone papMa. A small one. Natural size. Polished white, with 
bi'own markings. 



BEAUTIFUL SHELL-FISH. 237 

"When dried it resembles whalebone, and makes a very nice coach 
whip. Our bone fish are very similar in flavor and appearance 
to the northern shacL" 

Mr. Sargeant states, that the doljjhin, king fish, Spanish 
mackerel, bonita and rock fish weigh from fifty to one hun- 
dred pounds, and that the jew fish often weighs six hundred 
pounds. Among the remaining Bahama fish, he mentions the 
margate, cat, king, Hamlet, Miss Nix, grunt, runner, yellow tail, 
snapper, stripped snapper, gray snapper, pork, soldier, jack, 
goggle-eyed, cockeye, pilot, mullet, plate, grouper, shad, goat^ 
trumpeter, sunset, porgy, sailor's choice, sand porpoise, balahoo, 
and crawfish or lobster. 

The shell-fish found in the Bahama waters harmonize perfect- 
ly with the element in which they live, and with all the varied 
forms of vegetable and animal life with vv^hich they are surrounded. 
Exquisitely beautiful are they all. There is no shock to the most 
delicate and refined taste in passing from corals and corallines to 
the fish that live and sport in the stony submarine bowers and 
grottoes, — and from gorgonias and algae to mollusks — all are 
wonderfully beautiful in form and color, and live in water that 
pleases by its warmth, and charms by the sparkling brilliancy of 
its hues. These combined, constitute exquisitely pictured leaves 
of a most captivating chapter in the book of nature which G-od 
himself has illustrated. The perfection of the work will not 
surprise us if we reflect that the Artist is divine. It has been 
estimated that there are not less than four thousand different 
species of shell-fish in the waters of the Bahamas, and Mr. Phelps 
claims to have collected of the shells nearly one thousand. The 
shores abound with them, and they seem in many places almost 
as numerous as pebbles. We were astonished to find how large 
a number of handsome specimens we were able to collect within 
a small circle almost anywhere upon the shore without changing 



338 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 

our position. They constitute an important item in tlie daily 
stock in trade of the negroes who frequent the court of the Eoyal 
Victoria Hotel. Excepting the conchs, they are generally of 
small size and very delicate. No lady, and very few gentlemen, 
leave Nassau without securing a large supply for home use 
and distribution, and they constitute when away, hajopy re- 
minders of amusing scenes in the hotel court, and of occasional 
rambles upon the honey-combed and shell strewn shores of the 
islands and keys, when healthful pleasures filled the flying hours. 
Large, richly but darkly colored and finely polished turtle shells 
are secured by many at a cost of from two to fifteen or twenty 
dollars each. 

The common Conch, [strombus gigas) the "winged-shell," is 
by far the most valuable shell-fish of the Bahamas. It is from 
six to twelve inches in length, and weighs from one to five 
pounds. It weighs from four to sixteen ounces after it is dressed. 
It constitutes an important article of diet, and its shell is utilized 
in various ways. The conch often secretes a pearl of a light pink 
tint, mottled with water marks and having much the appearance 
of the eggs of dragon files. Many persons obtain a livelihood by 
diving for conchs, in which they become quite expert; some di- 
vers, it is said, being able to thus secure them in water ten fath- 
oms (sixty feet) deep. The local market for them is at Nassau, 
where they are carried when alive. After breaking off the apex 
of the shell, the animal is taken from its shell and first examined 
for pearls, and then sold for food. They are considered, by some, 
a very good substitute for clams. Some are eaten raw, and 
others made into fritters. They are generally considered pala- 
table, and are said to be nutritious. The shells are used in the 
States for ornamenting gardens, and in Europe in the manufac- 
ture of cameos. Lime is made of them in the Bahamas. 

The King Conch is less useful than the strombus gigas, being 



f/'T^ 






/ 



11 



12 



13 



14 






15 



^^^*fA*' 



16 




"'^K, 




J-li,Elra.ertori Icojii naiarg 



^ 'J;K.i'-^.!r3ersurp5.Cr]Scir!a Isle vHiveri 



BIVALVE SHELLS. 



COITCHS. WHALES. 239 

chiefly prized for its beautiful shell, the color of which is a light 
cream profusely mottled with brown umber and black. Its rarity 
and beauty secures for it a relatively very high price. 

The Queen Conch is far more common than the King Conch, 
and its shell is larger in size and somewhat smoother in outline. 
The back of the shell is pure white, and the tip a yellow tint, 
v/hile the interior is a dark brown. It is extensively used in the 
manufacture of cameos. 

The Tioist Conch, {triton tritords), is very rare and always com- 
mands from visitors a high price. It is regular in form and 
beautifully mottled with brown and wine colors. Mr. Phelps 
deems it unquestionably the most exquisitely beautiful shell of 
its size found in the Bahamas. 

A separate volume with illustrations, would be required to do 
anything like justice to the small mollusks whose shells pave and 
adorn the shores of the Bahamas. 

Mr. Bruce in the work from which we have already quoted, ' 
published nearly a century and a-half ago, expresses the opinion 
that, ''a beneficial whale fishery might be established here, [in 
the Bahamas,] as that fish comes in great numbers to wean their 
young among the islands, and several have been thrown ashore 
full of spermaceti." While we were at Port Eoyal, S. C, re- 
cently, we learned that several vessels from that vicinity are 
now prosecuting a successful business in capturing whales off 
that coast. Between Nassau and Florida, v/e also occasionally 
observed specimens of that great mammal of the ocean, which 
has done so much to dispel the darkness of the civilized portion 
of the world. 

In taking leave of the Bahama fishes, so far as unsatisfactory 
printed descriptions are concerned, it is a consolation to know 
that they and their gorgeous surroundings will continue with us 
through life — ^for memory has embalmed them. The poet sings 



240 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

of flowei's *' blushing unseen," and " wasting their fragrance on 
the desert air," merely because they are not enjoyed by man. 
This is an exceedingly contracted view to take of the matter, 
and is bottomed upon man's egotism. There is no insect how- 
ever small, no reptile however repulsive, no fish in any brook or 
sea, no animal that roams in pathless woods, and no. bird that 
disturbs with its wings or songs the deepest solitude of the sea 
or land, that does not find much which its nature is fitted to 
enjoy in the great world of which they as well as man, form an 
integral part. The same great Father made all and provides for 
all, and when we looked into the coral grottoes, caves and bow- 
ers, and saw the lavish display of exquisitely beautiful forms and 
colors which the water glass reveals, we felt that it was no more 
made for man than is the magnificence of tlie celestial world 
made for the few spirits outside, who, perchance, may occasion- 
ally be permitted, with or without eye glasses, to look at the 
inner glories through the key-hole of hetiven's great front door. 

A book has been recently published in England by Mr. Higgins, 
entitled " Notes by a Field Naturalist." The author spent a few 
days in Nassau, visited the " sea garden," and after giving some 
account of what he saw there and in its vicinity, he adds — 

"At last ! There it all was, even as the great naturalist of 
H. M.,S. ''Beagle" had said more than thirty years before, 'how- 
be it, I believed not the words until I came, and my eye had 
seen it — and, behold, the half was not told.' Description is not 
the proper vehicle for conveying the impressions made by such 
a spectacle. If the description be full, it is labored; if concise, 
it is nothing. I longed for the power of putting it into music." 

"There is no doubt that the 'garden' is a thing of beauty, 
and that of a very high order.'* 



CHAPTER XIY. 

Moonlight and Stcir light in the BahanuvS. New Heaveju. The Crescent 
and the Gross. The Starry Cross of Southern Skies. Midnight Wdtchings, 
with their Results. 

" The stars — they are the poetry of heaven, 
And in their bright leaves we may read the fate 
Of men and empires." — Child Haeold. 

''The eye 
Breathed on by fancy, with enlarged sense 
Through tho protracted and deep Imsh of night, 
May note the fairies, coursing the lazy hours 
In various changes, and without fatigue ; 
A fickle race, who tell their time by flowers. 
And live on zephyrs, and have stars for lamps, 
And night dews for ambrosia." — Simms. 

We found in the Bahamas not only a new earth, but the canopy 
of stars at night was in some respects unlike that to which wo 
had been accustomed. Our astronomical knowledge was too 
limited to enable us to indulge in a roll call of the heavenly hosts; 
but, from the extreme north, old stars had disappeared, while 
others, new to us, with seeming modesty, shone with a subdued 
light from lowly positions in the southern sky. Planets and 
great central suns appeared to have wandered from their spheres, 
and, with renewed fires, brilliantly gleamed from new positions 
in night's blue dome. The constellations of Orion and the Great 
Bear were, with a few others, too marked in their individuality 

841 '•2,1 



M2 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

not to be readily identified, notwithstanding their changed posi- 
tions and the increased brilliancy of their quenchless fires. The 
moon, when at and near its full, mounted almost to the zenith, 
glorified Nassau as she lay embowered amid trees of fadeless ver- 
dure, imparted to the'' long, narrow, encircling islands a sort of 
weird and unearthly aspect, and illumined with dancing light the 
waters of the harbor and of the more distant ocean. 

Among the stars of those ''new heavens," which are unknown 
to the northern skies, and which we especially desired to see, 
were those composing the Southern Cross. Many of the Moham- 
medans — the followers of the Crescent — discover in every new 
moon which hallows and adorns the unfathomable and awe-in- 
spiring depths of ether, a divine recognition of the supernatural 
origin of their religion, and are more confirmed in their belief 
in the truthfulness of its doctrines, the wisdom of its precepts, 
and the sacredness of its rights and ceremonials. A Christian 
may be pardoned for earnestly desiring to see with his own eyes 
the universally recognized symbol of the religion he professes 
emblazoned among the stars. In various articles of personal 
adornment — on sword and shield and scepter — in the form and 
ridge lines, and in the internal and external embellishments of 
the largest and most costly churches — upon altars, sepulchres and 
decorative slabs — in knightly adornments, kingly crowns, and 
imperial diadems — and iipon national banners proudly floating 
over the land and sea, The Cross has symbolized and proclaimed 
a widely dominant system of religious belief and faith. Christian 
voyagers m southern seas discovered in their lonely vigils this 
characteristic, significant and hallowed emblem, gleaming with 
all the brilliancy of quenchless fires, in those distant heavens, and 
naturally hailed it as a divine token that from the Avorld's ''be- 
ginning," when "the morning stars sang together," the Great 
Creator had placed upon the sky this prophecy and endorsement 
of the dominant religion of their time and countr3\ 



THE SOUTHERN CROSS. M3 

The Southern Cross consists of four stars, and their relative 
positions, when seen upon the meridian, is indicated by the fol- 
lowing: 



Were the upper and lower stars connected by a straight line, 
and the remaining two also connected by a straight line, the form 
of the cross would be apparent. When, in looking at the stars, 
this symbolic form is suggested to the observer, then (as in the 
case of seeing the face of a man in the moon) the resemblance is 
ever afterwards so vividly impressed on his mind, that the stars 
never fail to remind him of the cross whenever he sees them oc- 
cupying a similar position. When they are not upon the merid- 
ian the form of the cross is not revealed. 

Nassau being some distance north of the equator, the star gazer 
from that point can only see the cross when the stars which com- 
pose it occupy a position near the southern horizon, and he is 
consequently obliged to look at it through a large extent of the 
earth's atmosphere, resting so near to the land and sea as to be 
charged with their vapors. He who desires to see at Nassau the 
Southern Cross, will be more likely to have his wishes gratified 
if he makes his observations from some elevated jDosition, Avhere 
the air is particularly clear and the wind is blowing with some 
force from the north. 

It was upon a favorable evening in March, 1879, that on goino- 



SM ISLES OF SUMMER. 

to bed, we imposed npon our mind the task of waking our body 
up a little before midnight, in order that wo might make an 
effort to see this beautiful symbol from the cupola of the Eoyal 
Victoria Hotel. We awoke on time, and, only so far dressing as 
to meet the supposed demands of the invisible spirits of the 
night, we made our way through long corridors, up several 
flights of stairs, and into the profound darkness of the attic of 
the hotel, where, like many another seeker after "the light of 
the cross," we groped our dubious way. Finally a faint glimmer 
from above gave us hope, and after ascending another flight of 
stairs we emerged into a spacious glass enclosed observatory, from 
the inside of which and from its surrounding gallery, in the star- 
light and moonlight, we watched and waited for the cross. Here 
and there above the southern horizon, a few scattered stars ap- 
peared for a few moments through the rifts of slowly passing 
clouds, while a thin veil of mist curtained a low belt of sky from 
view. But having concluded to find the cross, Ave were not dis- 
couraged but determined to persevere, knowing full well that 
though for the time unseen, it was surely there. The sea air 
was delightfully cool, and we seemed more than ever before to 
realize how 

" Sweet are the gentle winds at night 

That breathe when all is peaceful 'round, 
As if some spirits downy flight 

Swept silent through the blue profound." 

Below us the city of Nassau, with its low diamond-shaped roofs 
and tropical and semi-tropical trees, was clearly and beautifully 
revealed; the harbor with its shipping and beacon light, was 
shghtly ruffled, and reflected a soft and silvery radiance; the 
barrier islands disclosed their picturesque shores, and beyond 
their low but verdant summits, the Atlantic seemed soothed and 



lulled to sleep by the sweet murmur of its own gentle billows. 
Above us were the new heavens to which we have referred, and 
in the resplendent light of its eternal stars, we seemed but an 
atom of thought in the boundless and magnificent universe of 
God. Nor could we banish the pleasant thought that there may 
be a deep and broad basis of fact in the mystic dreams and 
visions of the poets and prophets of the buried ages, whose men- 
tal vision discovered not only in all the surrounding air, but also 
in the profound depths of illimitable space, a vast universe of 
Spirits viewless as the wind and swift as the sun-beams. Amid 
the chaotic desolation of the bleak summit of Mount Washing- 
ton, with a piercing cold wind blowing at the rate of seventy 
miles an hour, we instinctively look earth-ward for fairies and 
fairy land, spirits and spirit land, but in tlie warm, clear, aro- 
matic air of the summer isles, sporting in the moonlight and 
starlight, or lurking in the soft shadows, it is easy for supersti- 
tion and credulity to believe in the existence of invisible spirits 
whose actual j)resGnce the quickened senses seem to actually per- 
ceive and recognize. 

While gazing upward at the magnificent stellar display, the 
crushing feeling of one's utter insignificance was somewhat re- 
lieved by the comforting thought that the human soul was 
created by the same divine power that filled tlie vast dome above 
us with its brilliant display of revolving suns and systems of 
worlds; that great and small are relative terms invented and used 
only by mortals; and that an indestructable thread, real but in- 
visible, connects and binds all to each other and to God. 

If this is so, we can give an affirmative answer to Whittier's 
momentous question — 

"This conscious life, is it the same 
That tbxilla the uni\ersal frame ?" 



S46 ISLES OF STlMMEfe. 

And the tiny insects hum, the song of the feathered minstrels, 
man's hymn of praise and adoration, and the music of tlie 
heavenly spheres, are not separate and discordant sounds, but 
one harmonious anthem, or, as Longfellow expresses it: 

' ' And the poet, faithful and far-seeing, 
Sees, alike in stars and flowers, a part 
Of the self-same universal being 

AVhich is throbbing in his brain and heart." 

And still musing, wondering, watchful and appalled, we hope- 
fully waited until we should see a blue banner unfurled above the 
southern horizon glorified and emblazoned with the gleaming 
and quenchless light of its cross of stars. Nor did we long wait 
in vain, for one star after another emerged from behind its cur- 
tain of vapor, occasionally again disappearing, until at last we 
had the great gratification of seeing, clear and indisputable, 
gleaming at that still midnight hour, above the earth's great 
central encircling line, from the unfathomable depths of space, 
that heavenly sign and symbol of the religion of the most ad- 
vanced civilization of modern times — ''The Soittherk Ceoss." 
Eeaching at last the meridian, it was fully and completely re- 
vealed in all its fair proportions, a beautiful cross of stars! 

Soon afterwards we retraced our steps, entered the darkness 
and gloom of the attic of the Eoyal Victoria Hotel, descending 
long staircases, and traversed seemingly interminable corridors, 
but the mind was luminous and buoyant, for it still glowed with 
the light of that starry cross in the sky. Thus, amid the doubt, 
darkness and gloom of the world, may the Christian Cross "tow- 
ering above the mists of time," as a true and faithful type of a 
higher life in this world, and a happier life in the world '' over 
the river," ever cheer, elevate and inspire with a faith that never 
wavers and a hope that is ever steadfast and enduring. 



CHAPTER XV. 

The Coral Isles the Home of Beautiful Birds. Their Scarcity in Nassau 
and its Causes. The Necessity of Legal Enactments to Protect the Birds. 
The Flamingo. The Bahama Mocldng Bird. A Brief Account of the Yid- 
tant and Hesident Birds of the Bahamas. 

"The birds, great nature's happy commoners, 

That haunt in woods, in meads and flowery gardens, 

Rifle the sweets, and taste the choicest fruits, 

Yet scorn to ask the lordly owner's leave." — Rowe. 

The islands and keys of the Bahamas furnish every year, for a 
longer or shorter period of time, a pleasant and appropriate home 
for a great variety of birds, some quite rare, and many very beau- 
tiful. And yet, at Nassau, the absence of bird life is very notice- 
able. Surrounded by perpetual verdure, and inhaling in mid- 
winter the softest airs of a northern June, we naturally expected 
to be awakened at day break, or to have our morning dreams 
shaped and colored by the rich and rare music of feathered song- 
sters. But we were doomed to disappointment, and had to be 
satisfied with the unmusical vocalism of hungry roosters. 

The cities of Florida in this respect are eminently superior, 
and upon landing, both at Fernandina and at Jacksonville, noth- 
ing impressed us more than the bird melody with vv^hich the air 
resounded. The turkey buzzard, that important member of the 
Sanitary Boards of our Southern cities, performs no scavenger 
duties at Nassau. Dr. Bryant states that it is abundant upon 
the islands of Andros, Abaco, and Grand Bahama, and he at-« 

847 



248 ISLES OF STTMMER. 

tributes its absence from Nassau to the fact tliat it cannot find 
there its appropriate food, as the blacks literally devour all the 
offal and waste of slaughtered animals, Avhile death from disease 
or old age yields very meager and inadequate supplies. The 
buzzards are too wise and sagacious to remain in a place so poor 
and healthy as not to furnish them with a decent support, and the 
''living" which "the world owes " them they seek elsewhere. 

Many birds frequent the pathless solitudes of the interior of 
the island of New Providence, and some parts of its shores and 
Lake Killarney abound with water fowl. 

We have no doubt the absence of birds from Nassau and its im- 
mediate vicmity, is the result of a persistent and long continued 
war upon them by the people. For sport, for food, and for sale, 
they have been killed or captured, and children have no doubt 
thoughtlessly and wantonly rifled and destroyed their nests. To 
the court of the hotel we have seen young fledglings brought, 
and money paid by sympathetic ladies to secure their release. 

Had suitable laws been made and enforced for the protection 
of the birds upon the island of New Providence, Nassau and its 
suburbs would present a new and very attractive source of en- 
joyment for visitors from abroad, hardly second to any for which 
it is now distinguished. Nature was almost as bountiful in 
giving to the air of the coral isles gay and beautiful forms of 
life, as she has been to the waters which encircle them. But 
this part of the colonial capital's inheritance of beauty and mel- 
ody has been thoughtlessly squandered. Wise legislation may 
do much to retrieve the loss, and to cause the soft, warm air to 
vibrate as in the olden times, with the rich and varied molody of 
tropical birds. The orchards with waxen leaves and golden frr.it, 
the fadeless foliage of shade trees and forest, and the thickets 
with their flowering shrubs and climbing vines, belon<y rightfully 
to the beautiful birds. For their benefit they were in part, 
created, and their possessory title is older than that of man's. 




J JI EiTLerton 



Lull Pimaefsan&Crisand.lfow Haven, Gl 



FLAMINGO. 



THE FLAMINGO. 349 

A large and finely illustrated volume entitled '* Birds of the 
Bahama Islands/' has, during the present year [1880], been pub- 
lished in Boston by its author, Mr. Charles B. Corey. It contains 
the fruits of his own personal observations, and valuable infor- 
mation derived from other authors. We glean from it most of 
our information concerning the ornithology of the islands. 

The Flamingo, for the size and brilliancy of its plumage, is 
most remarkable. To be appreciated it must be seen. With a 
small delicate neck longer than its body, and with lean and lank 
legs longer than its neck, it stands more than five feet high, 
dressed entirely in scarlet, and with lake-red legs. Most of its 
primaries are black, as is also the terminal half of its bill; the 
basil half of the lower mandible is orange. The only bird of 
this kind which v.^e saw in ISTassau was tame, and was kept as 
an unique and beautiful curiosity. Mounted upon stilts, it was 
quite amusing to watch it stalk around among feathered creatures 
less curiously made and less flashily dressed, and still more 
amusing to see it drink — which feat it accomplishes only by 
turning its head upside down so as to use the beak as a cup — 
a feat which is rendered quite easy of accomplishment by reason 
of its long flexible neck. 

Mr. Corey says: — " This beautiful species was at one time very 
abundant throughout the Bahama Islands, but of late years they 
have been so persecuted by the inhabitants that at the present 
time they are to be found in any numbers only upon the inland 
ponds and marshes of Inagua and Abaco; they are gradually dy- 
ing off, or seeking some more inaccessible locality as yet undis- 
turbed by the presence of mankind, and in all probability, with 
the next century the flamingo will be unknown in the Bahamas. 
The inhabitants find their breeding places, and gather hundreds 
of their eggs. They kill great numbers of the young birds be- 
fore they are able to fly, and carry away nearly as many alive to. 



250 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

sell to passing vessels, most of which die for want of care. They 
are killed by hundreds for their feathers, and thus gradually 
their ranks are being thinned, until at last the Flamingo, like 
the Dodo and Soltaire, will be a thing of the past. * * * * 
While on the nest, this bird sits with its legs hanging down on 
either side, and it presents a most ludicrous appearance." 

They were formerly seen in immense flocks, and Mr. Sargeant 
states that one flock which he saw numbered five thousand — but 
he omitted to add that he counted them. 

Whether seen upon the beautiful water of the shallow lakes 
and mangrove swamps, or among the green leaves of a tropical 
forest, a large flock of flamingoes, witli their bright scarlet uni- 
forms, must present a most gorgeous appearance. 

Mr. Corey's book contains a "General Catalogue of the Birds 
of the Bahamas," in which he gives the names of one hundred 
and forty-nine species. Of these, all but twenty-flve it seems, 
are also found in the United States. Some are limited in their 
range, being confined to certain islands. 

THRUSHES. 

Plumbeous Thrush, (called by the natives Blue Thrasher). 
This bird is found upon New Providence and Abaco, but remains 
generally concealed in thickets. 

Paw-pmo Thrush. It inhabits Inagua. 

Little Mocking Bird. It is a common resident at Inagua. 

Bahama MocJcing Bird. It is very abundant throughout the 
year in the Bahamas. Dr. Bryant says: "■ On those keys which 
are barely large enough for ary land birds to inhabit them, this 
bird is sure to be the first settler; and on some of them, as Ship 
Channel Keys for instance, which are only a few acres in extent, 
there would be two or three pairs, each occupying its own domain, 
"which they did not alloAV to be invaded by the others without 



giving battle at once. It was singular as well as pleasing, to 
hear on one of these lonely and almost desert keys, this graceful 
bird, mounted on the topmost spray o± some dwarf shrub, sing- 
ing with as much fervor and satisfaction as if surrounded by 
listeners, instead of having for sole auditor his faithful mate." 

Cat Bird. It is only a winter visitor. 

Blue-gray Gnat- catcher. It is a resident of the Bahamas, and 
Dr. Bryant found it abundant at Inagua. 

WARBLERS. 

The Black and White Creeper is not uncommon during the 
winter upon some of the larger islands. It searches the stems 
of trees for insects, like the Woodpecker. 

The Blue Yellow-bached Warbler is not uncommon during the 
winter, and Mr. Corey found it among the small trees bordering 
the road at Nassau. 

Tae Worm JEating Warbler was seen by Mr. N. B. Moore 
while at Nassau in November, December and January. 

The Dedrmca Petechia. This warbler was not uncommon at 
Inagua and Long Island in May and June. 

GundlocKs Warbler. This was abundant in summer, but not 
seen north of Long Island. 

The Yellow-rumpled Warblers were numerous near Nassau in 
December and January. It is tame and pretty, frequents the 
heavy growth, and is recognized by the yellow on the rump. 

Black-poll Warbler, Dr. Bryant found it abundant in the 
Bahamas from the 1st to the 10th of May. It searches the 
trunks of trees for insects. 

Chestnut-sided Warbler. Dr. Bryant saw a few early in May. 

Black arid Yellow Warble". Dr. Bryant thinks it as abund- 
ant as it is in the United States. 

Cajpe May Warbler, It is found in the Bahamas in winter, 



SB^ ISLES OF SUMMER. 

but is not abundant. On tlio 2Gth of Januar}^ Mr. Corey saw 
sereral in the trees in front of the hotel. 

Prairie Warbler. Pretty and abundant. 

Yellow-throated Warbler. Common in winter. It frequents 
tall trees— generally the pines. 

KirtlancVs Warbler. It is rare and prefers the thick brush. 

Yelloio Red-poll Warbler. Pretty, and in winter abundant. 
It runs along the roads and in low brush. 

Fine-creeping Warbler. A winter visitant, abundant in the 
pine woods. 

Golden Crowned Thrush. It prefers the thick undergrowth. 
Dr. Bryant found it common in Nassau in 1866. 

Water Thrush, (local name, Night Walker). It prefers damp 
ground, and to be surrounded with impenetrable undergrowth, 
hence rarely seen, although a regular winter visitant. 

Maryland , Yellow-throated Warbler. A beautiful ground 
warbler, and common in the larger islands. Dr. Bryant saw a 
flock which was two hours constantly flying past his vessel, though 
riot in a compact body. He states that on May 10th, ^'they 
were still abundant in the neighborhood of Nassau. "' 

Greater Yelloio-throoted Warbler. Local and rare. All the 
known specimens have been taken upon New Providence. 

Redstart. Abundant in winter upon the larger islands. 

CREEPERS. 

Bahama Honey Creeper. Pretty, small and abundant upon 
all the islands visited by Mr. Corey. It is fond of the honey in 
the blossom of the leaf of life ( Yerea Crenata), which it obtains 
by thrusting its bill through the petals — according to Mr. N. B. 
Moore. "When this sui:)ply fails, it devours the juice and pulp 
of the sour orange, and the small insects attracted to the sour 
orange trees, according to Dr. Bryant. 



Bahama BiRbs. 253 

SWALLOWS. 

Bahama Swallov). Small and beautiful, confined to these is- 
lands; it was found by Mr. Corey abundant in the neighborhood 
of Nassau in June. Dr. Bryant "saw them, during the whole 
of his stay at Nassau, but only on the first mile of the road lead- 
ing to the west of the island. They were so abundant there that 
thirty or forty could be seen there at almost all times," skimming 
along the road near the ground. 

White-helUed Swallow. Seen occasionally during stormy 
weather at Nassau. 

VIEEOS. 

Blach-whiskered Yireo. Very abundant after May 1st. 

Common Vireo. Small and abundant throughout the islands. 
It is a resident, and Mr. Corey found it especially common in the 
neighborhood of Nassau. 

FINCHES. 

Purple Grosheah; (local name, Spanish Paroquet.) It is abun- 
dant throughout the Bahamas, is yery retiring in its habits, and 
in the thick undergrowth its peculiar notes are heard. Gosse 
says that at the extremity of an immense horizontal limb of the 
silk cotton, or some other gigantic and hoary tree in the forests 
of Jamaica, "it builds a nest of rude materials, as large as a half 
bushel measure, the opening being near the bottom." Dr. Robin- 
son, (speaking of this bird as we suppose,) saj-s : "the black 
bull-finch builds a nest as big as a blackbird's cage, and, by the 
artful contrivance of this little volatile, the whole has the ap- 
pearance of a heap of trash, flung on the bow of some tree as if 
by accident, so that nobody could suppose it to be anything else.'* 
Those which Mr. Corey saw showed no signs of a purple color. 



S54 ISLtS bS- fetJMMSft. 

Black Grosbeak; (local name, Black Charles.) Mr. Corey 
found it common on Inagua during May and June. 

English Sparroic. It is said to have been introduced into the 
Bahamas within the last few years. 

Nonpareil. It sports blue, green, red, black and brownish 
red colors, and is believed to be only an occasional visitor. 

Indigo Bird. Mr. Moore saw it in Nassau in November. 

Black-faced Finch. It is small, domestic, likes human society, 
and is abundant everywhere. 

Bahama Finch. A beautiful bird Avith an olive green jacket; 
is abundant upon the island of New Providence, and *^is one of 
the first birds that attracts the visitor's attention, on account of 
its brilliant coloration." 

STARLINGS. 

Bobolink. Dr. Bryant saw flocks of them in May. They were 
called Rice Birds. 

Red-winged Blackbird. A common winter visitor, and perhaps 
a resident. Mr. Corey found it to abound about the ponds on 
Andros Island. 

PLY-CATCHERS. 

Gray Fly-catcher. An abundant summer visitant, and perhaps 
a resident. It is common south of New Providence. 

Rufous-tailed Fly-catcher. A resident, but less abundant 
than others of the same family. 

Least Bahama Fly-catcher. Small and abundant in some 
localities. 

Bahama Kingbird; (local name, Fighter.) A constant resi- 
dent and abundant. 

Goat Sucker; (local name. Death Bird.) Not common, and 
rarely seen on account of its nocturnal habits. It has a peculiar . 



BAHAMA BIHDS. 555 

Cry, resembling the syllables " chuck- wills- widow," and remains 
concealed during the day. The negroes believe that whenever 
it is seen a person in the vicinity will die in a short time. 

Little Nlghthaxck; (local name, Piranii-diyik.) It is abun- 
dant, and flies swiftly about sun-set in search of insects. It does 
not remain during the winter. 

HUMMIN"G BIEDS. 

J^ahama Woodstar; (locdln^vae, Ilummer.) It is very abun- 
dant in the neighborhood of Nassau. 

Lijre-tailed Hamming bird. Like many others of its family, 
it is restricted to a single island. It is found only upon Inagua. 

Ricord's Humming bird. Interesting in plumage and habits, 
it prefers the vicinity of the shore, and is common on Andros 
Island. Some writers suppose it confined to Cuba. 

Brace's Humming bird. It has been seen near Nassau. 

KINGFISHERS. 

- Belted Kingfisher. It is common in the winter, generally fre- 
quents small lakes and ponds, and Mr. Corey always, when visit- 
ing Lake Cunningham, near Nassau, saw it there. 

CUCKOOS. 

Bahama Cuckoo. Mr. Corey saw one near Nassau. 

Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Mr. Brace has taken it in the vicinity 
of Nassau. 

Mangrove Cuckoo. Abundant on the larger islands, and 
common near Nassau. It remains through the year, and keeps 
concealed in the thick undergrowth. 

Ani; (local names, Bain Crow, Blackbird) A very abundant 
resident, and is generally in flocks. Abundant around Nassau, 



256 ''ISLES OF SUMMER. 



WOODPECKERS. 



Mairy Woodpecker. Common at Nassau. 

Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. Abundant near Kassau in 'winter. 

PAEEOTS. 

Parrot. Formerly abundant upon the islands; now common 
only at Inagua. It frequents the cornfields in large numbers in 
July. 

OWLS. 

Barn Owl. It is found near Nassau, and has many names. 
Florida Burrowing Owl. Mr. Brace secured one at Nassau. 

EALCONS. 

Marsh Hawk. An occasional visitor. 
Sharp-shinned Hatch Seen near Nassau sometimes. 
Peregrine Falcon. Not common. 

Sparroio Falcon. Has been seen at Nassau, and at Great 
Stirrup Key. 

Red-tailed Hawk. One was taken at Nassau, and one at Inagua. 
Fish Hawk. An abundant resident in the Bahamas. 

VULTUEES. 

Turkey Buzzard; (local name, Croio.) Abundant at Androa, 
Abaco and Grand Bahama. 

PIGEOKS. 

White-headed Pigeon, Is found on the islands, and in summer 
repairs in immense flocks to the outer keys to breed. 

Zenaida Dove; (local name, Wood Dove. ) A beautiful species; 
is found throughout the Bahamas, but is not very abundant, and 
does not collect in flocks. 



BAHAMA BiftDS. SS? 

Ground Bom; (local name. Tobacco Dove.) Very tame, 
graceful and abundant. 
JSey Wesi Dove, Beautiful and abundant. 

PARTRIDGE. 

Partridge; (local name, Quail.) ]S"umerous near Nassau. 

THE PLOVERS. 

Blach-helUed Plover. A regular winter visitant, but not com- 
mon. It frequents tlie salt marshes and beaches. 

Golden Plover. An occasional visitor, and frequents the 
marshes. 

Kildeer Plover. An abundant winter visitor, frequenting the 
fields and marshes. 

Wilson^ s Plover. A resident and abundant. It frequents the 
long open beaches, and the shores of salt ponds. 

Ring-necked Plover. An occasional visitor. 

Piping Plover. Abundant in winter. 

OYSTER CATCHERS, ETC. 

Oyster Catcher; (local name, 8ea Pie.) Rather a common 
resident. Frequents beaches and sand bars. 

Turnstone. Abundant in winter, and frequents the beaches. 
It loses in winter ''the varied colors of its nuptial dress." 

STILTS. 

Stilt, Abundant as summer advances. Its trailing legs give 
it, when flying, a singular appearance. It utters, while flying, 
loud, sharp notes. 

SNIPES. 

WiXsorCs Snipe, Abundant in some localities in winter. 



^68 " ISLES OF SUMMEfi. 

Bed-hreasted Snipe. Mr. Oorey found three specimens upon 
InagLia in May. 

Semi-palmated Sandpiper. An abundant winter resident. 

Least Sandpiper. One of the most abundant winter visitants. 
Very social, and found in flocks on open beaches. 

White-rumpled Sandpiper. A regular winter visitor, but not 
common. 

Sanderling. A rather scarce winter visitant. It frequents 
beaches and soft marshes. 

Willel. Abundant on many of the islands. 

Greater Yellow-leg. Not uncommon in winter. 

SPOOjSTBILLS. 

Spoonbills. Curious, gaily colored, beautiful and abundant at 
Inagua. 

HEROisrs. 

Great Blue Heron, (local name, Ai'snicker). Frequently met 
with on the beaches, or in the small inland ponds. 

Inagua Heron. Very abundant in loagua in Summer. They 
breed in large communities. 

Reddish Ejret. A resident, and much more abundant than 
any other species of its family. 

Little Blue Heron. Abundant in winter. 

Green Heron. An abundant resident, frequenting marshes. 

Yelloio-croioned JSFight Heron. Very abundant throughout the 
Bahamas. 

Least Bittern. A rare visitant. It has been taken at Lake 
Cunningham. 

RAILS, ETC. 

Clapper Rail. Claimed for the Bahamas by Dr. Bryant, 



BAHAMA BIRDS. S59 

. Carolina Rail. A regular winter visitant; not abundant. 

Florida GalUnule. Resident and abundant when Dr. Bryant 
wrote. Mr. Corey could not find it. 

Purple GalUnule. Dr. Bryant saw but one specimen. 

Coot. Some remain all summer; large numbers arrive in the 
winter from the United States. They annoy the sportsmen, be- 
cause they frighten away more desirable game by their incessant 
clamor. 

DUCKS. 

Tree Duck. A not uncommon resident on some of the larger 
islands. It frequents the mangrove ponds. 

Bahama Duck. A small, pretty species, which Mr. Corey 
found frequenting the large salt ponds of Inagua. 

Blue-winged Teal. A winter visitant, beautifully adorned 
with finely colored plumage. It is abundant upon several of the 
larger islands, and frequents the ponds in flocks. 

Green-winged Teal. It is common during the winter, and is 
sometimes seen upon Lake Cunningham. 

Lesser Black-headed Duck. It visits the lakes in winter. 

Ring-necked Duck. It is abundant in winter, and is sometimes 
seen in flocks with other species. 

Red-headed Duck. A^inter visitant, and is abundant upon 
the New Providence lakes. 

Ruddy Duck. A winter visitant. It is abundant in the lakes 
near Nassau. It is an expert diver, and will swim under water 
to a hiding place in time of danger. 

GAlSrisrETS. 

Booby Gannet. About the 1st of February birds of this species 
repair to desolate, uninhabited, unfrequented places to breed. 
Small keys of a few acres in extent^ some lying so low that they 



^6(5 iSLfiS 01? StTMMEK. 

are washed by the waves during severe storms, are, during the 
breeding season, literally covered with them, of all ages, but 
mostly young. At such times the old birds manifest little dis- 
position to get out of the way of intruders, but will make savage 
attacks with their powerful bills if too closely approached. They 
are very quarrelsome, and make frequent malicious attacks upon 
each other. Dr. Bryant says it is the most expert diver of any 
birds with which he is acquainted. 
There is also another species, lighter colored, 

PELICANS. 

Broion Pelican. A resident, and breeds in great numbers on 
some of the islands. A tame one at Nassau exhibited more in- 
telligence than Mr. Corey supposed this bird possessed. It went 
to the fish market every morning, and helped itself to fish when- 
ever it could elude the owner's vigilance. On one occasion it 
made known its wants, and secured the services of Mr. Corey 
when it wished to enter the closed gate of its owner, by '^ tugging 
at his trousers with its bill," while Mr. Corey was passing. 

CORMORAlSrTS. 

Florida Cormorant. An abundant ^Decies, " Nothing could 
tempt" one which Mr. Corey had "to eat a fish which had been 
dead over night." --- 

PAM. TACHYPETID. 

Man-of- War Bird, sometimes called Frigate. It frequents 
all the Bahama islands, and remains during the year. Dr. Bryant 
visited some of their breeding places, the largest of which was 
upon one of the Eagged Island Keys, and was five or six acres in 
extent. He says: "The nests, thickly crowded together, were 



BAHAMA BIRDS. 261 

placed on the tops of prickly pears, which covered the ground 
with an almost impenetrable thicket. * * * j j^^ve visited 
the breeding places of many sea birds before, and some well worth 
the trouble, but none so interesting to me as this. It was a most 
singular spectacle; thousands and thousands of these great, and 
ordinarily wild birds, covered the whole surface of the jDrickly 
pears as they sat on their nests, or darkened the air as they 
hovered over them, so tame that they would hardly move on 
being touched. * * * Incubation is carried on by both male 
and females. * * * Its food is principally derived from the 
Booby, whom they rob as the Bald Eagle does the Fish Hawk. 
Why the Booby should submit to this, being much more power- 
ful, and armed with a most formidable bill, is strange." He 
watched them for hours, but never saw them catch a fish. While 
quite tame during the breeding season, it is shy and suspicious 
at other times. 

TROPIC BIRDS. 

Tropic Bird. It is called by the inhabitants Egg Bird. An 
"elegant and graceful species, and in summer abundant. Its 
flight is hurried and rapid, resembling that of the duck more 
than that of the gull. They closely resemble the Terns in their 
habits and appearance. " Mr. Bryant says that they breed in holes 
in the horizontal and perpendicular surfaces of the rock, which 
are often so winding that, though their harsh notes can be heard, 
they can only be procured by demolishing the rock. 

GULLS, TERIsTS. 

Laughing Gull. It is abundant throughout the Bahamas 
after April. About the time the winter visitors leave Nassau, it 
may be daily seen in Kassau harbor. 



263 ISLES OP SUMMEE, 

JBonapart^s Gull. Probably an occasional visitor. 

Gill-billed Tern. Common in summer upon the southern 
islands. 

Royal Tern. Abundant throughout the Bahamas, and dis- 
tinguished for its large size. 

Sandwich Tern. An interesting species, occasionally found in 
summer. Mr. Corey found them quite abundant during the 
latter part of May, at Bird Rock, Acklin Island. He adds that 
their flight is strong and very graceful, and that they dive and 
fish with great dexterity. 

Common Tern. Probably rather uncommon in the Bahamas. 

Roseate Tern. A beautiful, regular summer visitant, but not 
abundant. The adult male has a showy rose-colored breast. 

Least Tern. Common in the southern islands in summer. It 
breeds in large flocks. 

Sooty Tern. They frequent in large numbers the reefs and 
small islands. 

Bridled Tern. Mr. Corey found it abundant at Long Island 
during June. 

Noddy Tern. During the summer months immense numbers 
repair to the reefs and small islands to breed. 

PETRELS. 

Wilson^s Petrel. Abundant a short distant off the coast. 

Dusky Shearwater. An abundant resident, and very shy. It 
remains far out at sea during the day, often in large flocks, and 
does not return to the land until the darkness prevents it from 
being distinguished. Mr. Corey says: '^that all night long their 
mournful cries can be heard, but that long before dawn they are 
off again." They breed in holes or under projecting portions of 
the rock, seldom more than a foot from the surface. Dr. Bryant 
says, "Why .these birds and the stormy petrels never enter or 



BAHAMA BIKDS. S63 

leave their holes in the daytime, is one of the mysteries of nature, 
both of them feeding and flying all day, are yet never seen in the 
vicinity of their breeding places before dark. When anchored 
in the night-time near one of the keys on which they breed, their 
mournful note can be heard at all hours of the night. During 
the day they may be seen feeding in large flocks, generally out 
of sight of land. They do not fly round much, but remain most 
of the time quiet upon the surface of the water. I did not see 
one on the banks, and never saw them dive or apparently catch- 
ing any fish, though they are often in company with Boobies and 
different species of Terns, all of which are actively employed in 
fishing. About half way from Andros to the Bank, I saw on 
the 26th of April a flock of Boobies, Sooty Terns, Noddies, 
Cabot's Terns, and the Dusky Petrel, that covered the surface 
of the water, or hovered over it for an extent of at least a square 
mile. Their number must be enormous." The inhabitants 
call it PemUico. 

GEEBES. 

St. Domingo Grebe. A pretty little resident, which prefers 
the dark recesses of the mangrove swamps, and is not uncommon 
upon Andros and some other islands. 

Mr, Corey states that " the small keys which, during the win- 
ter present a desolate appearance, in the summer season teem 
with bird life; thousands of Terns of different species repair to 
these deserted spots to breed, and their eggs might be gathered 
by the barrelful, as the rocks and sand are, in places, almost cov- 
ered with them." 

For the benefit of any of our readers whose love for the birds 
may incline them to visit the Bahamas in the summer season, 
we ought perhaps to add that Mr. Corey says: that ''the south- 



361 ISLES OP SUilMER. 

ern islands are almost uninhabitable by reason of the myriad of 
insects by which they are infested." Even the horses, according 
to the testimony of the inhabitants, are sometimes killed by 
them. Several of the islands, Mr. Corey thinks, have never as 
yet been by any naturalist fully explored. 

We are happy to recommend Mr. Corey's " Birds of the Bahama 
Islands " to all desiring extended and particular information con- 
cerning the subject matter of this chapter. 

We cannot close this chapter without again respectfully sug- 
gesting to the people of Nassau the very great importance of 
securing the enactment and enforcement of such wise laws as 
will secure the return of the birds of the Bahamas to their woods 
and waters, and to their gardens and orchards. 

The Mallard was omitted by mistake from the account of the 
ducks of the Bahamas on page 259. It is of a large size, and 
has a glossy green head. A white ring encircles the lower jiart 
' of its neck; its breast is of a purple chestnut color, and its wings 
are tipped with white and black. It is a regular winter visitant, 
and frequents the lakes and ponds. Audibon says: " its i:)rogress 
through the air I thought might be estimated at a mile a minute, 
and I feel confident that when at full speed, and on a long jour- 
ney, they can fly at the rate of a hundred and twenty miles an 
hour." 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The Infuenae of the British Court and Aristocracy upon the People of 
Nassau. The Landing of Prince Alfred upon the Island of Neio Providence. ■ 
Nassau and the British Oovsrnmsnt During the Late War of the Rebellion. . 
Blockade Running. Nassau Practically a Confederate Port. International 
Laws Construed and Enforced so as to Greatly Damage the United States. 
Fortunes Rapidly Mads, Squandered and Lost. Wild Excitement and Great 
Dissipation. Great Increase of Disease and Crime in Nassau. 

' ' No voice of friendly salutation cheered us, 
None wish'd our arms might thrive, or bade God speed us." — Rowe. 

As the child apes the man, so the practices and sentiments of ■ 
the court and aristocratic circles of Great Britain give tone and- 
character to society in the dependencies of the British crown in 
all the ends and corners of the earth. In Nassau^ English in- 
fluences dominate, although from the geographical position of 
the Bahamas, and the natural course of trade, they are commer- 
cially more closely allied to the United States, As the home 
government retains and exercises the power of filling the high 
executire and Judicial offices, and has the ultimate and deciding 
voice in all im.portant legislative and judicial matters, a great 
check exists against the growth of a natural sentiment in favor 
of political independence, and free institutions. Much is done' 
in the Bahamas to foster, keep alive and deepen the feeling of 
reverence for and true allegiance to the Queen, her family and 
her government. The landing of Prince Alfred upon the island 
of :N"ew Providence, upon the 3d day of December, A. D. 1861,- 
--■■■- 365 23 : 



^66 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

caused the 3d day of December in all future years, to be declared 
a public holiday. The flight of stone steps which lead, from the 
harbor to Eawson's Square, upon which on that occasion he first 
stepped, were called by his name on account of that auspicious 
event, and thus keep him in perpetual remembrance. Not that 
Alfred had developed great genius, or purchased fame by his 
attainments and exploits; not that the soft balmy air of those 
coral isles had vibrated with a single great thought from his royal 
lips that would be heard in future times; not that from his pen 

"A small di-op of ink, falling like dew upon a (hought, 
Had made thousands, much less millions, think;" 

not that he had lightened the heavy burden of a single tax, or sug- 
gested administrative or governmental reforms, or caused any of 
the wild and now waste crown lands of the islands to be conveyed 
to their landless j)oor— but, being a prince, it was a crowning 
glory, an event never to be forgotten in the coming years and 
distant ages, that he had actually gone ashore at Nassau. By 
reason of his royal blood, his mere foot-fall has left a permanent 
irapress upon Bahama history, like the fossil tracks of great an- 
imals upon sandy shores in pre-historic times. We trust that 
we entertain a proper respect for Prince Alfred, both on his own 
account and on account of his parents, whose virtues are suflScient 
to make them illustrious, but to make the day of his landing a 
great historic event because of his blood, looks very much like 
an effort on the part of somebody to purchase favor at the court 
o| the Queen. There is a day in the history of the Bahamas 
■w,hich the outside world will keep in perpetual remembrance— 
the day upon which the Old World first had an introduction to 
the New. No column, obelisk or temple, is seen upon Watlin's 
island, where, as we believe, Columbus first landed, knclfc, and 
gave thanks to God. No public recognition of that event has 



ITASSAU AKD THE BLOCKADE Rri^NERS. ^6^ 

been made by the Bahama goYernment, and we doubt if many 
of the islanders know where it .occurred — but they will not 
be permitted to forget the day the Prince of Wales was born, 
nor the time his sailor-boy brother first trod the white lime- 
stone streets of their little colonial capital. This is the result, 
no doubt, of governmental policy. Distance — the mists of space 
— impress the African mind, and Victoria's golden crown, on the 
other side of the broad Atlantic, reflects a mystic light, like that 
of "thegretit white throne " beyond the limits of time. The 
nearness of the Baham_as to the United States — the intervening 
waters of the Gulf of Florida being to some extent spanned by 
a bridge of ocean steamers — tends more and more to strongly 
bind them to the States by the strong ties of commercial inter- 
course. At least a hundred Americans visit those islands for a 
longer or shorter time, to one EngiishmaD, and republican in- 
fluences, if not studiously counteracted, would soon predominate. 

The British ministry and aristocracy during the late civil war 
in the United States, from political and commercial considera- 
tions, openly and heartily sympathized Avith the South, and great- 
ly prolonged the Avar by the aid and comfort they rendered the 
would-be founders of a great slave-holding oligarchy. Nassau 
practically became a most important naval station and depot of 
supplies for the Southern Confederacy. 

Under the friendly flag of Great Britain, secessionists and 
oiockade runners held high carnival upon the "Isle of June."' 
Commanding, as Xew Providence to a limited extent does, our 
South Atlantic coast, the approaches to the West India Islands, 
and the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, Nassau is very favorably 
situated to do great damage to our commercial marine in time 
of war; and the Confederates, Avith the British government and 
aristocracy on their side, were not tardy in availing themselves of 
its advantages. The Avildest excitement prevailed. Steamers 



ISLES OF SUMMER. 

and sailing vessels^ built for speed, were constantly arriving and 
departing. King Cotton was enthroned at !Nassau and upon 
Hog Island. The cotton famine districts of England, and the 
destitute armies of the South, alike looked to Nassau for mate- 
rial assistance. Brave, daring and dashing men in gray were the 
lions of the day, and were courted and feted by the high digni- 
taries of Church and State in this miniature seat of royal and 
sacerdotal pomp and power. Fortunes were rapidly made, and 
the Bahama treasury overflowed with gold, which came in rich 
streams from its custom house. All the Bahama negroes who 
had anything to sell were made happy. The crumbs from the 
Confederate tables that dropped upon Capt. Sampson and his 
fellow boatmen, are vividly remembered to this day, and it is 
very amusing to hear Sampson, in his graphic way, while his 
yacht is bounding over the billoAvs, describe the golden but now 
departed days of Nassau during the war. The Bahama govern- 
ment v/as soon enabled to wipe out its debt of £47,786 (over 
$238,000). The Eoyal Victoria Hotel, for the erection of which 
the Bahama legislature made an appropriation in the year 1859 
of only £6,000, that valetudinarians might be suitably accommo- 
dated in Nassau, was elaborat'ely and expensively finished in 
the early part of our late war, at a total cost of over $100,000, 
and the Nassau people were in consequence enabled to sumptu- 
ously entertain their Southern friends— the daring and dashing 
wearers of the gray. Gov. Eawson states in his official report 
accompanying the Blue Book of the Colony for the year 1864,^ 
that the hotel cost ''up to the close of 1864, £19,804." As the 
appropriation for the hotel in 1859, was only £6,000 it is proba- 
ble that the tide of wealth which in consequence of our war, 
lilled to overflowing the coffers of the colonial treasury, led to 
the erection of a more elaborate and expensive building, that the 
Confederates and blockade runners might be suitably entertained. 



iisTASSAU A CONFEDERATE PORT. ^6^ 

Indeed, Gov. Rawson says, that '^without snch an establishment 
it would have been almost impossible to have provided for the 
influx of persons connected with the blockade trade." But alas! 
how unstable are human hopes! How speedily the shadows suc- 
ceed to the sunliojht! Changes great and unexpected thwart 
" the best laid schemes of mice and men." 

A few short and fleeting yeai-s since then have passed, and the 
bold, rich and dashing Confederates are there nowhere to be seen, 
but in their places' come the once hated Northerners, including 
not a few Yankees from troublesome New England, to repose in 
the pleasant chambers, and feast in the banquet hall of the Royal 
Victoria Hotel, so lately honored by the advocates and champions 
of ''the lost cause." The Great Republic meanwhile rises with 
new strength and vigor from its baptism of blood, far more for- 
midable than it ever was before as a rival in peace and an enemy 
in war. 

Blockade running culminated in 1864 and the early part of 
18G5. The imports of Nassau in 1860 were in value only £234,029 
and its exports £157,350, but the imports in 1864 were of the value 
of £5,346,112 and the exports £4,672,398. In January and Feb- 
ruary 1865, twenty steamers ran the blockade, and landed at 
Nassau 14,182 bales of cotton, which were of the total value of 
two and three-quarters million of dollars. Every one was wild 
v/ith excitement. Fortunes were made in a few weeks or months. 
Grold eagles, and twenty dollar gold pieces were pitched instead 
of pennies, by fickle fortune's new favorites, in the Court of the 
Royal Victoria Hotel. Money was spent and scattered in the 
most extravagant and lavish manner; and, as a natural conse- 
quence, immorality and crime affected the moral atmosphere, 
and disease nestled and watched for its victims in the soft and 
balmy air of this great natural sanitarium. 

In these calm and peaceful days a vivid imagination will find 



^t*d iSLES OF SUMMEE.j 

itself impotent to conceive the extent of the dissipation, the prof- 
ligate waste, the mad revel and riot, and the wild frenzy and 
delirium which everywhere jn-evailed. What a contrast they 
afforded to the mild, soft and lambent air, — the clear, placid and 
beautiful waters, — the calm and quiet majesty of heaven's blue 
dome, — and the fairy bowers with their flowers and unfading 
verdure, which characterize this favored part of the New World ! 
But like the occasional great tidal waves of the ocean, which after 
they subside leave little but wreck and ruin upon the shores which 
they visit — when, soon after, the Confederacy collapsed, and only 
the Stars and Stripes fluttered in a free air over all the recently 
dissevered States, silence resumed its reign in the streets of Nas- 
sau, and much that existed, in the shape of fixed capital, was 
turned into a ruin by the great hurricane of 1866. A lasting 
monument was erected to commemorate and keep alive the mem- 
ory of those days, vv^hich every inhabitant of these islands sees and 
feels, in the form of a colonial debt of over a quarter of a million 
of dollars. 

If the American eagle and the British lion hereafter quarrel, 
we recommend the former, (in settlement of accounts), to make 
a breakfast of the Bahamas some pleasant morning, — saving their 
insignia of royalty for our Peabody Museums. 

Two rules were adopted by the English government during 
the war, which operated (as it was well known at the time that 
they would, and as it was designed that they should,) very much 
to the benefit of the Confederates, and to the prejudice of the 
United States government. One provided that if there was a 
Confederate vessel and also a Union vessel in a British port, and 
one sailed out first, the other should not leave until twenty -four 
hours had elapsed. Now, as our vessels of war were always the 
pursuing party, the rule greatly and exclusively aided the South. 
To put it mildly, this was unfriendly conduct, and had for its 
object the permanent dissolution of the American Union. 



XTN'FRlEN'DLIlsrESS OF GREAT BRITAIN". 271 

And when an armed Confederate vessel entered an English, 
port, she was permitted to take in coal sufficient to enable her 
to reach a southern port. This was according to the rules of 
international law. But the English authorities gave it, (in the 
interest of the Confederates), a practical construction which con- 
formed to its letter but violated its spirit. They held that a 
Confederate steamer having coaled once in an English port and 
departed, might return as often as its officers pleased, for fresh 
supplies of coal, without any troublesome questions being asked. 
So that, under this rule, a Confederate privateer, without mak- 
ing a home port, was able to continue its cruise along the great 
ocean highways frequented by our commercial marine, run into 
Nassau when it pleased for coal, capture our merchant ships, 
and levy forced contributions upon or destroy them. They held 
that no violence was thereby done to the principles of national 
neutrality, because the British government did not know and 
was not obligated to inform itself whether or not the privateer 
had since its previous coaling, returned to a home port, nor what 
had become of its previous supplies. 

The unfriendliness of the British government to the American 
Union at that time, furnished a solid foundation upon which 
the rebellion rested its hopes. It greatly protracted the war, and 
largely increased the harvests of suffering and death, and, as a 
necessary consequence, impoverished the South, wasted the sub- 
stance of the North, and stirred up bitter feelings of hostility 
between the two nations after the memories of old and bloody ^ 
family quarrels had nearly faded away. And what did England 
and her colonies thereby gain ? The cotton she received from 
blockade runners during the war, formed but a very small frac- 
tional part of the entire crop. The value of her vessels and car- 
goes captured by our cruisers while endeavoring to run the 
blockade, aggregated many millions of dollars, Nassau wag 



373 ISLES OF SlIMMER. 

rendered wild and delirious by becoming for a time a great com- 
mercial center, and awoke to find herself only weakened Ly the 
dissipations which the great carniyal had caused; while England 
was humiliated by an award which compelled her to pay heavy 
damages for injuries we suffered from the rebel cruisers which 
she permitted to be fitted out in her ports. The two countries 
are bound together by the strongest of ties — blood, language, 
mutual dependence, religion, literature and law — but the love 
and respect of children for their mother can be greatly impaired 
and even turned into hate. It should never be forgotten, how- 
ever, that the British Queen stood faithfully by the Union in the 
days of its sorest peril, and that the great body of the British 
people were also with us. 

The yellow fever prevailed at ISTassau in the years 18G1, 1862, 
1863 and 1864:, and resulted in the loss of many lives. 

The statistics of crime, disease and death, during this period 
in Nassau, clearly prove this bad business to have been equally un- 
favorable to sound health and good morals. There were commit- 
ted to prison in the Police Court in Nassau in 

1861, Males, 875, Females, 189. 

1863, <' 533, " 233. 

1863............... " 6S9, " 189. 

1864, '' 891, «. 231. 

There were tried for the more heinous offences in the G-eneral 
Court in 

1861, 17.— Convicted, 13, Acquit 'ed, 4, 

1863, 34.— " 23, " 13. 

1853, S3.— " 59, " 23. 

1884,...,. 99.— ♦' 75, "34 



NASSAU AKD BLOCKADE RUISTNIN'G. 



273 



The following table from Got. Rawson's report exhibits the 
number of vessels which arrived from and departed for the south- 
ern states at Nassau, from 1862 to 1865: 





Arrived from Southern States. 


Departed for Soutliern States. 


Years. 


Steamers. 


Sm:ill Sailins 
Vessels. 


Small Sailiug 
Steamers. Vessels. 


1861 
1863 
1863 
1864 
1865 


2 

32 

113 

105 

35 


2 
74 
27 

6 


3 

46 
173 
165 

41 


1 

109 

48 

2 


Total, 


287 


109 


428 
287 


160 




109 




Excess 


f Departures, 


141 


51 



Of these, forty-two steamers are known to have been captured, 
and twenty-two to have been wrecked, chiefly off the ports of 
Charleston and Wilmington. Thirty-two were confederate ves- 
sels. Of the twenty-three steamers which remained m the harbor 
of Nassau, or arrived in it after the Southern ports were taken, 
twelve cleared for England, four for Halifax, two for Bermuda, 
three for Havana, one for St. Thomas, and one for Matamoras. 

During the whole period, 18G1-18G5, 164 steamers, connected 
with the trade of the Southern States, entered the port of Nassau. 
Of these, 108 brought cargoes from the coast. Fifty-six are re- 
corded as having left the port of Nassau, but do not figure among 
the arrivals from the coast. Fifty-one steamers made but one 
voyage each, and twenty-three two voyages each. Two steamers 
made ten trips, and the Syren eighteen. On her nineteenth 
yoyage she was captured. 



374 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 

In 1863 the expenses of a vessel Avliicli could carry 800 bales 
(including wages, coal, provisions, labor, repairs and agent's com- 
missions,) were about £3000 for a round trip, to and fro. In 
the following year the expenses were increased to £5000. The 
salary of the captain rose from £600 to £1000 for the trip, with 
the privilege of carrying ten bales of cotton on his own account. 
The purser and first officer received each £300, with the privilege 
of carrying two bales each, and the pilot received £1000, Avith the 
privilege of carrying five bales. 

A first class steamer would run from Charleston or Wilmington 
to Nassau, in about forty-eight hours. She could be discharged 
in twenty-four hours, the laborers working day and night. But 
three days for loading and unloading was considered good dis- 
patch. The excitement, extravagance and waste which prevailed 
under such circumstances may be easily imagined. 

During the, war, had the colored people who compose about 
three-fourths of the pojiulation of the Bahamas, known that the 
question of the enfranchisement of five millions of their race was 
involved in the struggle, we should at least have had their warm 
sympathies on our side. But nearly everything relating to the 
war that was pnblished in Nassau, so far as we have been able to 
learn, was favorable to the rebel side. This may also be fairly 
inferred from the fact that the oxly battle of that war that 
the publisher of the "JSTassau Guardian" has noticed in the col- 
iimns of important events inserted in his Nassau Almanac for 
1879, is that of Bull Eux, July 21, 1861. 

It is charitable to conclude that the editor and compiler has 
never heard of the great Union victories that culminated in a 
restored Union, and we trust, a permanent peace between the two 
sections of our common country. 



CHAPTER XYII. 

The Bahama Constitution. Opening of the Colonial Legislature. Impo- 
sing Ceremonies. The Negroes Made Happy. The Governor and his Military 
Guard of Hanor. " Parliament" Prorogued. Martial Music and Booming 
Canaan. Engrossed Bills Approved and Signed. Small Annual Crops of 
New Laws. No Color Line in the House of Assembly. Wrecks and Wrecking 
in the Bahamas. Salvors and Salvage. Bahama Hurricanes. 

"Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world 
Like a colossus; and we, petty men, 
Walk under his huge legs, and peep about 
To find ourselves dishonorable graves." — Shakespeaee. 

In 1879, the day after our arrival at JSTassau was distinguished 
by the opening of a new session of the Bahama Legislature. Our 
landlord kindly secured for us tickets of admission, for only those 
thus favored were allowed to witness the ceremonies. Tliey bore 
the official signature of the President of the Council. The chief 
executive officer of the Bahamas was G-overnor William Robinson, 
a man with black hair and eyes, a heavy moustache and long 
beard. He Avas apparently not over forty years of age, five feet 
eight or nine inches high, rather good looking, and had a practi- 
cal business air about him. He appeared in most excellent phys- 
ical condition. With the thermometer, even in the winter 
ranging in the shade among the seventies, he bore up under the 
folloAving heavy weight of titles and descriptive appellations. 

''His Excellency William Robinson, Esq., Companion of the 
most distinguished order of St. Michael and St. G-eorge, Governor , 

a75 



^76 ISLES OF StMJVIEE. 

and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Bahama Islands, Vice 
Admiral and Ordinary of the same. " 

These titles are not only harmless, but, under British rule, 
they very likely serve a useful purpose, and help to make the 
people respect and reverence those whom it is the pleasure of the 
home government to appoint and send out to rule over them. A 
Bahama negro especially, may be expected to be very greatly im- 
pressed when a new governor comes upon the island to represent 
the Queen with such an imposing array of titles. 

In this case, we felt less disposed to be amused when we ob- 
served that the governor's public utterances indicated practical 
administrative talents, and a desire to j^romote the general wel- 
fare. 

There is an Executive Council, composed of nine members; 
four who hold other high offices, are members ex officio. 

''Parliament" (as in common speech here the General As- 
sembly is termed) is composed of eight Councilmen, who are 
appointed for life by the Queen upon the nomination of the 
Governor, and a ''House of Assembly " composed of forty-one 
delegates from this and neighboring islands, who are elected for 
seven years. To be eligible, they must own real estate of the 
value of 12,500. They receive no pecuniary compensation for 
their services. 

It is common for citizens of Nassau to represent in the Assem- 
bly the people of some of the other islands. They desire the 
honor, and can better afford to hold the office, as the Legislature 
meets near their houses and places of business. This gives Nas- 
sau a controlling inlluencc in all legislative matters. 

Thus it will be seen that the Colonial government follows 
closely the English model. It is eminently fitted to secure sta- 
bility, and we think, wise legislation. 

■ The constitution is not based upon any charter, but originated 
in successive Royal Commissions to the governors empowering 



b^teirtiTC} OF "PARLIAMEKT.** ^i}"? 

them to convoke a General Assembly. The number who voted 
in 1861, waa 4^351. 

The common law is the foundation of the jurisprudence of the 
colony, but the amendments introduced from time to time in 
England have been generally adopted without delay. In 1848, 
the Attorney General was made public prosecutor, and it was 
provided that in all civil cases, and in all but capital criminal 
cases, the verdict of two-thirds of the petty jury might be taken, 
and that in capital cases two -thirds might acquit but not convict. 

We confess that we had a curiosity to witness the ceremonies 
attending the opening of a '^'parliament" possessing certain 
limited legislative powers over such a large number of islands, 
inhabited and otherwise. 

To secure favorable seats, we went early to the Council Cham- 
ber. One o'clock, p. m., was the hour appointed for the services 
to commence. Our little piece of pasteboard was duly respected 
and honored by the colored officials who guarded the approaches 
to the Council Hall. 

This hall is unpretentious, and can seat comfortably about 150 
persons. It has windows on three sides. At one end of it was 
a platform slightly raised above the main uncarpeted floor, with 
its own backing all draped with red bunting, and surmounted by 
the red cross of St. George. Upon this platform stood the chair 
of the presiding officer. 

The sound of martial music in the street as the hour of one 
approached, was quickly followed by the entrance into the hall 
of .the members of the upper house. They were mostly not far 
from seventy years of age, intelligent looking, and had every 
appearance of being the right men in the right place. To see 
them was to have confidence in them. ISTo Connecticut Senate 
ever impressed us more favorably. They occupied arm chairs 
with high backs, upholstered with leather, near to and in front 
of the president's chair. 

H 



^7§ ISLES OF STJMMEft. 

A police force was in charge of the hall and its approaches, 
and gave seats to the citizens and visitors from abroad, who soon 
occujDied all the seats back of the table of the Legislative Council. 
These policemen were all young and black, yet very bright look- 
ing. They wore blue jackets, white pantaloons, and fatigue caps. 
Belts encircled their waists, to which were secured clubs like 
those carried by policemen in northern cities. They seemed to 
be picked men, and were polite and gentlemanly in every resj^ect, 
having nothing of that ofEensiveness of manner so common when 
ignorance and brutality are invested with a little brief authority. 

The people there assembled to witness the ceremonies were 
evidently highly cultivated and intelligent, and all seemed to 
appreciate and enjoy the honor of this novel entertainment. 

The Governor, having left the Government House, was received 
at the Legislative building by a colored military guard of honor 
in gay unifornis and white turbans. They formed a detachment 
from the First West India re^'im3nt, and presented arms while 
the national anthem was played by the band. The Zouave uni- 
form has special attractions for the negro. 

Soon the Governor, accompanied by high ofScers of state, and 
followed by the officers and members of the lower house, entered 
the Council Chamber, took a position upon the raised platform, 
gave a dignified bow to the venerable members of tlie upper house, 
who all rose to receive him, surveyed deliberately and with seem- 
ing satisfaction, his brilliant audience, and then, while still stand- 
ing, read from manuscript his speech. The members of the 
Assembly and others who came with him remained also standing 
on his right. He was dressed in blue, while a moderate quantity 
of gold lace, and a sheathed sword by his side, indicated that 
while Governor he also filled the position of a military commander. 
His army then in commission at Nassau, consisted of two com- 
panies of colored troops. In the division of Legislative honors 



" PAKLIAMEHT '' PROKOGUED. . ^79 

the negroes had a portion allotted to them, several of them being 
members of the lower house. 

The Governor's speech was ably written, and effectively de- 
livered. It covered matters of practical importance, and would 
compare well with the speeches and messages of our State execu- 
tives. 

The address concluded by a suggestion that sounded very 
home-like, that the present session of the Assembly might be 
even shorter than the last, which in brevity surpassed its prede- 
cessors. 

After delivering his speech, His Excellency and his suite with- 
drew, and the members of the lower house retired to their cham- 
ber. Both houses afterwards voted replies. As the Governor 
left the building a salute was fired from three field pieces, the 
troops concluded their escort duty, and all the colored population 
of Nassau which had assembled to see the show, followed His 
Excellency's example, satisfied and gratified with the short epi- 
sode which had broken the monotony of their every day life. 

Before we left Nassau in 1879, the Bahama Parliament was 
prorogued by the Governor with imposing formalities. At the 
appointed hour. His Excellency, accompanied by his Secretary 
and other high ofScials, was escorted from the Government 
House, (as his residence is called,) to the building in which the 
Senate holds its sessions, by the colored troops, while martial 
music imparted life and spirit to the indolent air. The semi- 
royal pageant was a god-send to the negroes, as it broke in pleas- 
antly upon the dull monotony of their every day life, and, in Bay 
street where the procession passed, they constituted, to the eyes 
of northern strangers, the most interesting part of the show. 

The legislative " dissolving views " were witnessed by those only 
who had been favored with tickets wliich secured them a free 
pass to the Senate Chamber, and, being numbered among the- 



386 ISL-Eg OF SUMMER. 

fortunate ones, we repaired in good season to the appointed place, 
inspired by a natural curiosity to witness the " giving up of the 
ghost" by an integral and important part of the law making- 
power of this out-lying portion of the Queen's possessions. 

The Senators, (or colonial lords,) grave, dignified and prepos- 
sessing in their appearance, took possession of their high-backed 
arm chairs, and in low tones conversed with each other, until 
the sound of approaching footsteps indicated the arrival of their 
more youthful and less exjDerienced superior in official rank and 
honors. 

In the presiding officer's chair, (which was decorated with ban- 
ners and bunting,) the Governor was soon comfortably seated and 
enthroned. His military dress and sheathed sword were mildly 
suggestive of the power which upholds government, and gives 
effect and potency to law. He received, as before, the speaker 
and members of the lower house, the former accompanied by his- 
large and conspicuous mace of office, brought to Nassau from 
South Carolina by the royalists after the revolution of 1776, 
while a clerk or secretary carried the parchment rolls u^^on which 
were engrossed the unsigned bills of public acts which had suc- 
cessfully run the gauntlet of the two houses. Each roll was 
successively handed to the speaker, who, in an audible voice, in- 
dicated its character by reading its title, and handed it to the 
Governor, who signed it in the presence of both houses of the 
colonial parliament, and thus, by his approval and signature, 
united with the legislative branch of the government in making 
it a law of the colony. There were in 1879 but five rolls, so that 
only five laws were enacted at one entire session of the Bahama 
Legislature. We had no means of determining to what extent 
this extremely short law crop was chargeable to the climate. In 
the crisp, cool air of the north, crime is tirelessly active, and con- 
stantly assumes new and unexpected forms, rendering additional 



^^ PARLIAMBN'T " PROEOG-UEI^. ^81 

enactments necessary, while the rapid growth of new industries, 
the great accumulations of wealth in ever changing forms, and 
tlic constantly increasing complications of human affairs, public 
and private, give rise to countless and unending changes in the 
laws. But rest, repose, quiet, torpor, sleep — lie down and nestle 
in the soothing, languid air of the isle of uuending summer. 
Industry and enterprise wilt and wither in an atmosphere that 
seems made for disordered nerves, and worn and weary minds, 
and for the development and growth of vegetable life and beauty. 
Only five new laAVS in one entire legislative session! But for the 
wrecking business, the ten commandments, with suitable penal- 
ties, appended like snappers to whips, would almost meet the 
requirements of these happy islanders so far as law is concerned. 

There v»^ere sixteen engrossed bills in 1880 that received the 
Governor's signature upon a similar occasion when we were pres- 
ent. 

The Governor, after giving his sanction, and adding his sig- 
nature to the enactments, addressed the two houses separately 
and collectivel}^, after the manner of the British Queen in Par- 
liament, and said: 

■ ** Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Honorable, the Legisla- 
tive Council; 

"Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the Honorable House of As« 
sembly; 

'''I am glad to be able to relieve you from your parliamentary 
duties, and thank you for your cooperation in all matters that 
have been submitted for your consideration; 
• " Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the Honorable House of As- 
sembly; 

'^I am much indebted to you for the very liberal supplies 
which have been voted. " 
' The Governor alluded to the government as ^' my government," 



^83 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

which together with his reference to the supplies which had been 
Yoted, made the idea prominent that his excellency was the gov- 
ernment itself, and not merely an executiye officer authorized to 
see that a government of written laws is duly enforced. 

After complimenting the Assembly by telling its members 
that ^'thoy had kept pace with the legislation of the mother 
country," he said: 

'^ By virtue of the power invested in me by her majesty, I now 
prorogue this parliament until the 11th day of May next." The 
Governor then retired, accompanied by the officials who had 
graced and honored the occasion with their presence. They were 
followed by the members of tlie two houses, and by the amused 
and gratified spectators. The latter, for awhile, mingled with 
the crowd outside, whose loyalty may be fairly presumed to have 
been intensified by the inspiring notes of martial music, the 
thunder of deep-mouthed cannon, and the showy uniforms and 
soldierly bearing and evolutions of the colored troops who acted 
as a guard of honor to his excellency. 

As the legislature was only adjourned for three or four weeks, 
the affair would have been a waste of time and powder, if time 
had there any money value, or public shows had been more com- 
mon. 

On those occasions when we attended the meetings of the 
House of Assembly, its sessions were in the evening, and only 
routine business that did not consume more than half an hour, 
was transacted. Members rose languidly from their easy seata 
and addressed a few words to the speaker in a low tone of voice. 
The speaker had reduced parliamentary brevity to a fine point. 
In putting a question, he very quietly said — "negatives rise — it 
is carried." This mode insured an unanimous vote in the affirm- 
ative, as something extraordinary would be required to induce a 
member to rise out of his comfortable and roomy chair. The 



THE WREOKTXrT BUSIKESS. ."^83 

Colored members looked intelligent, appeared well, and seemed 
to command the respect of their white associates. 

WRECKS AND W^EECKIIirG. 

Much may be truthfully said in commendation of the delicate 
silken web of the spider, as its gossamer threads, gemmed with 
dew-drops, glisten in the morning sunlight, — but to many gay, 
sportive insects it is a trap of death. Little do they think of the 
lurking peril as they fan the warm air with their tiny wings, and 
voice their happiness in gentle murmurs. Thus in the clear 
warm waters of a summer sea, the Bahamas attract by their 
beauty, and lull and disarm suspicion by their soft and languid 
air. But a more dangerous place is nowhere to be found in all 
the paths of commerce. Numerous islands, keys, rocks and 
reefs, deceitful currents and cross currents, and extensive shoals 
and banks, constitute only a part of the perils which 'ever lurk 
in these much frequented waters, for v,^reckers have succeeded 
the pirates, and the salvage of the salvors, and the legal and other 
expenses, not unf requently absorb all that the destroying elements 
and engulfing waters have left. Deprived of the means of sup- 
port which the varied industries of colder climates so lavishly 
furnish, hundreds of the Bahamians wait and watch for wrecks, 
as our northern cats wait and watch for summer birds. 

The government officials and the courts of admiralty, under 
the broad aegis, of colonial revenue acts and maritime law, are 
handsomely provided for in the division of the spoils of the sea, 
so that in many cases the owners in distant States have to thank 
Nassau for little more than a convenient and sufficiently roomy 
burial place for their property and their hopes. 

The number of wrecks reported in seven years, from 1858 to 
1864, was 313, of which 259 were claimed to be total losses— 
which means, we suppose, total so far as their owners were con- 



'384 ISLES or SUMMER. 

cerued; the wreckers and government and coiii-t officials took all 
that was saved as a compensation for their services. The hurri- 
cane months are August, September and October, yet of these 
313 cases, 199 occurred during the six months ending May 1st 
of each of these seven years, being nearly two-thirds of the whole 
number. 

The amount of salvage awarded from 1855 to 1864, in 'fifty- 
nine derelict cases, was £11,318 10s. 5d., and in thirty-seven 
salvage cases, £59,955 14s. 8d., making a total salvage for those 
ten years, of over 1350,000, being about six times more than 
was paid to the proprietors by the English crown for the whole 
group of islands. In 1865 the owners of the American steamer 
Herman Livingston, which was stranded and got off, paid, 
under an agreement with the master and salvors, 130,000. The 
salvors, after discounting the bill, received £5,480 3s. This was 
divided among thirty-two vessels and boats. 

Governor Kawson says: ''It is stated on good authority, that 
the average salvage allowed, chiefly by arbitration, which twenty 
years ago amounted to sixty per cent., has not during the last 
five years, (1859 to 1864,) exceeded forty per cent., and that the 
charges for commissions amount to ten per cent, on the mer- 
chandise saved, and for labor, storage, &c., to four per cent, 
more. From the above, the extent may be inferred, to which the 
population of the colony, maritime and commercial, has been and 
continues to be interested in this source of employment and in- 
come." 

The total value of wrecked property, including hulks and 
materials, paying ad valorem duties of twenty per cent., auction 
duties of five per cent., and specific duties and of property re- 
exported, aggregated £638,864. 

Gov. Rawson also states that wrecking has had the necessary 
and usual effect of demoralizing the persons engaged in such. 



HIJRRICAKES. 



286 



occupations, of diverting their attention from agriculture or any 
other industrial pursuit, exposing them to the trials and tempta- 
tions of alternate abundance and Avant, and accustoming them to 
rejoice in the misfortunes which bring calamity and ruin to 
others. 

The local legislature has endeavored to bring the wrecking 
system under control by a law which requires licenses to be taken' 
out for men and vessels, provides for the appointment of wreck 
masters, apportions the share of salvage which each vessel and 
its crew may claim, and imposes penalties for certain acts of mis- 
conduct. In 1858 there were licensed 302 vessels and 2,679 men; 
in 1865 only 176 vessels and 712 men. The late civil war in the 
States occasioned this difference. 

HUEEICAiSTES, 

As the hurricane has a great sanitary mission to perform in 
purifying the air and destroying the germs of malignant diseases 
in the West India islands, it is seldom that more than three or 
four years pass by without some manifestations of its presence 
and power. At such times the wreckers reap a rich reward. 

The following list of hurricanes that are known to have passed 
over the Bahamas is taken from Grov. Rawson's report: 



1780, October, 3 to 4. 

4tol6. 

1796, " 3 to 5. 

1801, September, 5 to 6. 

1804, " 7 to 9. 

1813, July 23 to 34. 

" August 22 to 24. 

1S21, Seotember 1 to 2. 

1837, Au:?ust, 20 to 22. 

1830, '" 13 to 14. 

1835, " 14 to 15. 

1837, " 2 to 3. 



1838, September 5 to 

1842, August 2 to 4, 

1844, October, 5 to 6 

1846, " 10 to 11 

1848, August, 22 to 23 

1853, " 18 to 20, 

1856, " 25 to 27 

1857, November, 10 to 12 

18:8, October, IGtolO 

1861, August, 13 to 15 

1863, " 27 to 28 

1865, October,... 23 to 25 



286 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

This list includes those Imrricanes only concerning which G-ot. 
Bawson had reliable information. Probably there were others 
during the period covered by his table. We suppose also that 
many of the hurricanes mentioned visited only a portion of the 
Bahamas. The terrible hurricane which inflicted such serious 
damage upon Nassau in August, 1866, desolated many other 
islands, and damaged and destroyed a very large number of ves- 
sels. The recent hurricane that caused such a destruction of 
property in Jamaica, and wrecked the steamer Vera Cruz in the 
Gulf of Florida, with great loss of life, must have been felt to 
some extent on the island of New Providence. Very favorable 
official reports have since been received from Nassau in regard to 
the health of that city. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Social Life of Wassau. 8odety Pervaded by Natural Chrystalizing 
Laws. English Forms and Titles icsll Booted. Citizens of the Great Bepiih- 
lic Ambitious to Mix and Mingle in High-toned Sooiety. Social Oayeties — 
Picnics and Balls, Wine and Waltzing, the ^^ Sound of Revelry at JS'igJit.''^ 
HighiDays Made and Repaired to Accommodate the Victims of a too Oenerous 
Hospitality. A Governor who Appreciates the Dance, and does not Under- 
estimate the Value of His Titles. A Doctor of Divinity Made Happy. In 
What Places, Hospitality is Indigenous. 

"Fill the bright goblet ; spread the festive board; 
Summon the gay, the noble and the fair ; 
Let mirth and music sound the dirge of care, 
But ask thou not if happiness be there — ■ 
Lift not the festal mask!" — W. Soott. 

The social life of a people cannot but be a matter of absorb- 
ing interest to the stranger, even if he does not acquiesce in the 
sentiment of the poet, who affirms that 

" The proper study of mankind is man." 

In its main roots and cardinal elements human nature is the 
same everywhere; but traditions, education, customs, climate and 
other influences and surrounding circumstances, wonderfully 
varied and widely dissimilar, produce new and unlooked-for re- 
sults which arrest the attention, awaken inquiry, furnish food 
for reflection and materials for a criticism which is only in a^Dpear- 
ance sometimes unfriendly. In ]N"assau, we were in such a hap- 

287 



288 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 

py frame of mind, being relieved from all the harrassing cares 
and severe labors of professional life, and having all our nerves 
soothed and quieted by a most delightful climate, that while we 
were ready to heartily assent to one line of the poet that ''every 
prospect pleases," we were by no means willing to unite in the 
severe charge partially concealed and ambushed in the expression 
that "only man is vile." But our eyes were neither blind nor 
bandaged, and no one tried to pull Bahama wool over them. 

Small communities are inclined to overestimate their impor- 
tance, magnify their merits, and to be unconscious of defects 
and foibles which immediately attract a stranger's attention. 
They often feel disturbed when unfavorably criticised, and the 
pen of the traveler sometimes leaves ujDon a thin and morbidly 
sensitive epidermis, an enduring mark. In our country, (which 
we are pleased to call "The Great Republic,") the inflated blad- 
der of conceit has often been remorselessly punctured by Eng- 
lish tourists. Across the wide and stormy Atlantic the derisive 
laugh has been distinctly heard. It has penetrated the depths 
of primeval forests, and embittered the perfumed air of the 
boundless prairies of the G-reat West. The people of the old 
world are amused and astonished to find their Yankee cousins so 
thin skinned. The latter are more vexed because they cannot 
successfully retaliate. Hoary with age, and rich with the vast 
accumulations of many centuries, the great countries of Europe 
know little and care less what may be published concerning them 
in the New World. 

We found so much to enjoy and commend in the Bahamas, 
we trust its people will not consider, us unfriendly if we allude, 
to some few things which are less complimentary. 

Completely isolated — an oasis in a wide waste of waters — J^as- 
sau is necessarily a little microscopic world, but slightly connect- 
ed with the great old and new worlds which the vast ocean, which 



SOCIAL LIFE OF JSTASSAIT. 289 

surrounds the island upon which it is situated, divides and sepa- 
rates. This isolation has very naturally tended to foster some 
degree of self-exaltation, which could not have existed had its 
people been brought in closer contact with the great tides of 
human life and activity thousands of miles away. 

It is proper, however, to suggest that our observations of the 
social life of Nassau were taken from an outside stand-point, so 
that the reader may very properly allow a wide margin for mis- 
takes and imperfections. We did not plant our feet upon a sin- 
gle round of Nassau's social ladder, but, like Jacob of old, we 
occasionally saw as we supposed, the angels ascending and de- 
scending upon it. Had we been permitted by a kind Providence 
to clmib, as some were to crawl, up the dizzy heights of official 
and social life in that little colonial capital, and been sufficiently 
calm and self-possessed to have observed with an undazed eye, 
and to take notes with a steady hand, we should be better quali- 
fied to reflect back upon our readers a little of that intoxicating 
pleasure, which, like a philter, is supposed to pervade that uj)per 
and truly aristocratic air. But, landing upon one of the wharfs 
of Nassau utter strangers to her people, we had no letters of 
introduction that opened for us the door of a single private 
dwelling. The Royal Victoria Hotel, with its numerous guests, 
varied and constantly changing, was a little miniature world in 
which we were satisfied to live and revolve, making but few out- 
side acquaintances, and those slight and casual. We had no 
desire to commence a fresh set of books for new and short-lived 
friendships, nor to gratify an idle curiosity by crossing the thresh- 
olds of hospitality; but as one can learn much, and all he desires 
to know, about a gale of wind without being exposed to its fury, 
so a close and careful observer upon the outer margin of society 
sees many things — feathers in the air — that disclose to him much, 
cf the ' ' true inwardness " of a high life of fashion and folly, 

25 



^90 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 

The eye of sucli an observer is not blinded, nor his judgment 
warped, by the subtle influences that envelope, like aromatic 
odors, the festive board, and infect the air where invited guests 
assemble to add new and stronger ties to friendships that are not 
always sincere, disinterested and genuine. 

Small cities exhibit in miniature the different phases of human 
life which exist in large ones. Their inhabitants are never en- 
tirely homogeneous. The integral parts are radically unlike, 
and persistently refuse to assimilate. Great natural formative 
and organizing laws, subtle but powerful, are ever in operation, 
erystalizing and stratifying the elements of which society is com- 
posed. Brains and blood, rank and fortune, that never would 
be felt or known in a great metropolis, ruffle and disturb with 
their little eddies the insipid and otherwise stagnant waters of 
a small town. 

However- much we may admire the happy and contented spirit 
of the grim, hard-headed, stoic Greek philosopher of the tub, 
who wanted nothing of the dispenser of royal patronage but such 
a change of position as would secure the full benefit of the light 
and heat of an unclouded sun, it cannot with truth be denied 
that the love of rank, social position, office and high sounding 
titles is with most persons inborn and inbred. It is in the warp 
and woof of their souls. Nor can that be said to be an " infirm- 
ity of noble minds," which an all-wise Creator has made a part 
of their nature. Looking a little below the surface, Ave see and 
learn that these seemingly light and trivial objects of desire are 
great impelling forces, constantly stimulating and urging their 
possessors upward and onward. Gewgaws and trinkets are not 
to be ignored, belittled or despised, if, as objects of human d^^- 
sire, constantly coveted and labored for, they furnish healthful 
stimulus to indolence, and cause valuable additions to be made 
to man's stores of material and intellectual wealth. 



LADIES AMBITIOUS AI^TD ASPIEIN"©. ,291 

In a little town upon a small island, from our position on the 
outside, perhaps we were inclined to be cynical and uncharitable, 
when we allowed ourselves to be amused at the apparent official 
and social exaltation of some of its more favored people. If the 
Governor at times seemed to us a little airy; if the young, newly- 
appointed and freshly imported Chief Justice, who blossomed 
out in a scarlet robe of office and a wig, (judicial toggery before 
unknown upon the Judicial bench of jSTassau,) seemed to us much 
more elated than any Chief Justice we had seen in the States; 
if the Bishop sported titles but little in harmony with the humble 
and modest spirit of the Apostles of the olden times; and if to 
our superficial view ''the upper classes" appeared somewhat 
proud, supercilious and exclusive, it may have been because at 
the time we failed to remember that they were only exhibiting 
traits of character common to our race in all parts of the world; 
that they were playing the game of life, as it is everywhere played, 
only the stage upon which the chief actors performed their several 
parts was relatively small and insignificant. 

But as we looked from our quiet nook upon the different phases 
of life in Nassau, what astonished us most was the great desire 
which certain ladies from the States manifested to mingle on 
terms of social equality witli the aristocracy of !N"assau, and to 
receive attentions from officials with high sounding titles. The 
poet is not correct wlien he affirms that 

''Women, like moths, are ever caught by glare," 

though it is true that they frequently are, and a very large title 
occasionally surrounds Avith an attractive and dazzling eflfulgence 
small, bad, and repulsive men. As woman's sphere is domestic 
and social, it was natural that the lady guests at jSTassau, finding 
themselves isolated and cut off from the outside world, should 



292 ISLES OF SUMMES. 

desire to cultivate the acquaintance, and stand or kneel on the 
same social platform with her majesty's Bahama rejjresentative, 
with his then rcpu ted wealthy and very popular official secre- 
tary, with the brand new "'lord" bishop, with his excellency's 
counsellors, with the venerable and very dignified members of 
the Bahama house of lords, with the honorable speaker of the 
lower house of the Bahama parliament, and with the few un- 
titled gentry composing the elite of the town. It was perfectly 
natural that some of the more enterprising and ambitious should 
use all their arts, and every attractive and alluring blandishment, 
together with full and free libations of expensive wines, and other 
stronger, and, to some, more attractive beverages, in order to 
accomplish a result so much desired and coveted. It is true that 
the blood of a portion of the "gentry" is said not to be perfectly 
pure, but it is difficult in some cases of mixture to accurately 
draw the color line, and it is Avise to ignore it, and ask no ques- 
tions of one's partner in the voluptuous waltz, which might result 
in banishing the inquisitor from high-toned society. It is at 
times injudicious to scrutinize closely hair that appears straight 
or nearly so. One lady was quoted as saying that she j)referred 
Nassau to London, because it is not so difficult in the former to 
gain admittance into good societ}^, and move in its best circles. 

To the few and favored strangers who have the entree of the 
homes of the leaders of Nassau society, we have no doubt the 
social sky glows with a fervid and impassioned warmth unknown 
to colder climates, and sparkles with a fascinating brilliancy like 
the neighboring phosphorescent waters in the moonlight. Pas- 
sions are more fervid in the warm latitudes; love is more ardent, 
friendship more demonstrative, and hospitality more liberal, open- 
hearted, kind, and assiduous to please. The islanders have 
established an enviable reputation for the agreeable and polite 
attentions which they bestowed in the past upon strangers so- 



SOCIAL (^tAYETIES. ^9.1 

journing among them. Formerly, from their isolated position, 
intercourse with the outside world was infrequent, but now, with 
a steamboat load of fresh arrivals in a small town once a week 
during the winter season, what can the poor islanders do? Hos- 
pitality withdraws appalled, if not disgusted, while Avarice and 
Cupidity stalk boldly to the front, and with an enterprise and 
industry remarkable in such a warm and enervating climate, 
scramble for the greenbacks and gold of the new-comers. Like 
a few choice plants in a green-house, a little of the old time hos- 
pitality is preserved. 

In the "Letters from the Bahama Islands," written by a lady 
more than fifty years ago, much space is occupied with descrip- 
tions of the social gayeties of Nassau. Then, as now, picnic 
parties upon some of the islands, or *^' at some rural spot" in the 
suburbs of Nassau, were of frequent occurrence. " Most families " 
were accustomed to devote each Saturday "to festivity," and 
marooning parties upon that day were common. All but the 
invited guests contributed to the entertainment. The particular 
things which each furnished were previously determined by a 
ticket drawn by lot from those which the managers prepared. 
The authoress adds: 

"The evening is generally passed at the town house of one of 
the party, at cards and conversation, and ends with a2^etlc souper^ 
and I am afraid the opening of the Holy Day finds many of these 
Saturday revelers too dull and drowsy for morning prayers." 

The same writer speaks of frequent and most charming dinner 
parties which she attended, and of other festive occasions, when 
the ladies "were pledged in full bumpers;" of supper upon the 
deck of a brig after a marooning excursion upon Rose Island, when 
" chamj)agne and the choicest wines flowed like the waters below 
them in sparkling abundance, and the hours flew swiftly and 
gaily on;" of the storm that kept them out "in a pelting rain 



294 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 

till two o'clock Sunday morning;" of ''state dinners" at half 

past six o'clock given by G , a bachelor; of supper at twelve; 

also of supper on another occasion at one o'clock at night, fol- 
lowed by music and dancing for she did not know how many 
hours; of a ball in the Assembly Eoom, when the Governor and 
suite were saluted by the band with the "King's March;" of re- 
tiring at four A. M. ; of a ball in honor of the King's birth-day, 
when flags ornamented the shipping in the harbor, guns were 
fired, fire-works displayed, and the "dear five hundred " were 
permitted to unite with their superiors in doing honor to their 
sovereign. 

The pictures were drawn by a friendly hand, and though made 
more than half a century ago, we are inclined to believe that, 
with slight modifications, they will answer very well for the pres- 
ent day. From the little which we saw, and from information 
derived from others, we are of the opinion that the picnics, the 
balls, the nightly revels, the feasting and drinking, the whist 
parties and early morning hours for retiring, characterize to a 
considerable extent the fashionable and high life of this miniature 
colonial capital to-day, as in 1823-4. To the ball which the 
Governor gave at the Government House while his wife and chil- 
dren were in England, some few of our hotel guests we know 
went late and returned in the small hours of the morning. His 
Excellency manifested in our presence at the ball which some of 
the ladies of our hotel gave in its dining hall, a great fondness 
for the waltz, and was reported to have taken part in each of the 
eighteen dances at the ball given by himself. One gentleman 
who attended the latter observed that the Governor was so occu- 
pied, while the heavy load of official cares was laid aside, in 
honoring his lady guests by kindly consenting to embrace and 
spin them around in the rhythmic circles of the voluptuous dance 
of the German, as to seemingly forget what genuine politeness 



A BAHAMA GOVERN'OR. 295 

and ordinary courtesy demanded of liim for the proper entertain- 
ment of liis other guests. But as he has not then occupied his 
exalted and honorable position for many years, having been so 
recently as in 1873 simply " William Robinson, Esq.," and fervid 
passions lurk in the warm air, while the ladies who received his 
assiduous attentions were greatly pleased and flattered thereby, 
we must not criticise him too closely or judge him with severity. 
It is something to be a Grovernor of a British colony, even though 
it is poor and sparsely populated, especially where one, in addi- 
tion to the free use of a palatial residence with ample grounds, 
has a salary of 110,000 a year. When we saw in the public library 
of Nassau a little volume made up of his official report of the 
exhibits of the British colonies in the Vienna Exposition, and 
observed upon the first blank leaf, in his own hand- writing, this 
entry: *' Presented to the Nassau Library by H. E. Gov. Robin- 
son, the author," we were at first disposed to smile, for we knew 
that certain of the able and very modest men of Connecticut, 
whom it had been our privilege and good fortune to personally 
know, while occupying the executive chair of a State that has 
brains and wealth, and industry and enterprise, and j)opulation. 
sufficient to make a great many Bahamas, could never have been 
induced to write ''His Excellency the Governor" before their 
honored names. But when we reflected that the Governor of 
the Bahamas had been educated and trained under institutions 
and a political system less democratic and radically different from 
our own, and where rank and honors and high-sounding titles 
are held in very high esteem, and when we further considered 
that Her Majesty's most loyal subjects upon these little islands 
had been trained and educated to treat with the most profound 
and deferential respect the men whom the Queen from time to 
time sends to them to represent her sovereign authority and 
power, we thought perhaps His Excellency knew what his stib-- 



396 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

jects (mostly colored) required better than we did, aud that pos- 
sibly prof ound political wisdom existed, though concealed in acts 
thafc to plain democratic eyes appeared ludicrously egotistical and 
vain. 

An old author states that ^'the general character of the West 
Indians is extremely j)leasing to strangers. They are frank, lively 
and generous, and hospitality is carried to an extreme which is 
unknown in England; and there are few persons, we believe, who 
have ever visited these islands who have not separated from many 
of the inhabitants with regret." Speaking of the people of 
Kingston in Jamaica he says: '^It is their pride to send away 
their guests so mellow as to be scarcely able to find their way.. 
On this account much extraordinary attention is paid to the roads 
in Barbadoes." "The streets of Jamaica may almost be said to 
be paved with glass bottles. " How many of these bottles had 
done service, in ''entertaining angels unawares," is among the 
matters mysterious and unknown. The miles of stone walls 
which enclose the private grounds of the people of Nassau, are 
to a large extent surmounted by the broken fragments of glass 
bottles, laid in mortar; the broken glass is strongly suggestive 
of the convivial habits of Nassau in the earlier times. One would 
suppose it extremely unwise to engraft the habits of the English 
aristocracy, who are accustomed to raise the damp and chilly fogs 
which envelope them with the contents of the bottle, upon the 
customs of a people who live in an atmosphere of almost tropical 
heat. But tiie leaders of fashion in Nassau arc not only extremely 
loyal to their most excellent queen, but seem to aspire in every 
way to mould their habits and conform their lives to English 
models, without any regard to the wide differences which exist in 
all the circumstances which surround them. We should antici- 
pate that, as a natural and necessary consequence, a rapid wasting 
of all the vital energies of mind and body, and a material short- 
ening of the term of human life. 




A Private Residence in u^assau. 



KASSAU HOSPITALITY. 397 

The pleasant and agreeable attentions which are shown by the 
local clergy of Nassau and some prominent church members to 
ecclesiastics from abroad, who, by letter or otherwise, make them- 
selves known, may be inferred from the following extract from 
a short descriptive and highly eulogistic account of Nassau, com- 
municated to a New York religious paper by a clergyman. He 
writes under the date of March 25, 1876: ''The hospitality of 
the inhabitants is as warm and genial as their clime. The polite 
cordiality extended co non-residents makes them forget they are 
strangers in a strange land. '" A burrowing animal from its little 
hole in the ground is about as well qualified to describe a universe 
which it has not seen, as is a Doctor of Divinity to accurately 
portray the hospitality of a place, because the doors of certain 
good, pious and appreciative persons have always been flung wide 
open at the approach of one of God's favored ambassadors. We 
doubt if the learned doctor was invited to the high-toned enter- 
tainments, where cards and wine and the waltz shortened the 
hours of midnight and of the early morning, and helped to place 
in full accord the best blood of the Bahamas with the aristocratic 
and royal blood of the mother country. And we know from ob- 
servation and experience, what any one may know is true from 
the nature of the case, that forty-nine out of fifty strangers so- 
journing in Nassau will never know, except from report, that 
there is such a thing as a generous hospitality anywhere upon 
the island. This is not exceptional, for the same thing is and 
must be true in all places where strangers arrive regularly at short 
intervals and in large numbers. In a small, poor city, they con- 
stitute rich golden placers to be sedulously worked, and not dis- 
guised angels to be entertained. 

We all know by report, and not a few by personal experience, 
the warmth and glow of a hospitality, noble and unselfish, that 
was indigenous to the soil, and flourished with tropical luxuriance 



29^ ISLES OF SUMMEE. 

in many of the Southern States in former times. When certain 
loyalists fled with their slaves to the Bahamas after the breaking 
out of the American revolution of 1776 from the States of the 
Carolinas and Georgia, they carried their hospitality with them, 
and found that it flourished better than cotton upon those rocky 
isles. And no doubt it still survives, but circumstances have 
greatly changed. While retaining an allegiance to the mother 
country that, if mistaken, challenges admiration, they did it 
largely at the expense of their fortunes, and at ISTassau the ex- 
ercise of hospitality on a large scale, sufficient tomeet the require- 
ments of weekly boat-loads of strangers, who are willing to be 
received with open arms and to be entertained with princely 
liberality, would soon result in their financial annihilation. But 
any gentleman of respectability and of fair social position, who 
is able and willing to take with him to ISTassau a large supply of 
the choicest wines and other liquors, will only need to let his 
position be known in order to be surrounded with troops of high- 
toned friends, officially and otherwise well up among the gentry 
of the island. Liquors will open doors better than letters, and, 
as a social currency that will circulate everywhere, even cheek 
must give way to champagne. 

But, as in the floral world, the shrubs that from leaf and flower 
load the air with sweetest perfumes, seldom, if ever^ spring spon- 
taneously from the soil where trade has established her thronged 
and busy marts, so it is in countries sparsely populated, and sel- 
dom marked with the impress of stranger foot-steps, that the resi- 
nous, spicy and aromatic perfumes of a free, genuine and grate- 
ful hospitality rise like incense from censers sacred and golden. 



CHAPTEE XIX. 

The First Great Voyage of Columbus. He Solves the Dark Problem of the 
Ages. His Land Fall. The Whole Group Made Forever Memorable. The 
Spirits of Columbus and Black Beard Indelibly Imp/i^essed Upon the Islands. 
Eminently Good and Bad Men Not Dead When They Die. The Natives As 
Columbus Found and Described Them. The West India Islands Occupied by 
Substantially One People. The Caribs. The Search Among the Bahamas 
for the Fountain of Youth. 

" There are great deeds that "will not pass away, 
And names that must not wither, though the earth 
Forgets her empires with a just decay."— Bteon. 

The Bahamas are objects of great historic interest to the whole 
civilized world, but to the inhabitants of the Western Hemi- 
sphere they have a peculiar charm. The life and voyages of 
Christopher Columbus, the son of a Grenoese wool-comber, when 
faithfully recorded, give to literature a treasure of inestimable 
value, and to the department of fact, the absorbing attraction 
and dazzling brilliancy of fiction. For several weeks after our 
first arrival in Nassau, the great navigator and discoverer was 
almost constantly in mind. While yachting in the perfectly clear 
and transparent waters, so exquisitely colored, borrowing their 
rich hues not only from the skies but from the white sand beds 
and coral shelves and reefs over which they flow, we thought 
how, after his long and anxious voyage, he must have been im- 
pressed; and every ride we took over the hard limestone roads, 
upon the island of ISTew Providence, now. looking out upon the 

299 



^66 1SLE9 Oi? StTMMM. 

neighboring keys, set like jewels in liquid colors so peculiarly 
rich in shades of green and blue that written language is too 
poor to furnish terms with which to describe them — and then, 
turning to a new world of trees, shrubs, vines and flowers, we 
seemed to commune with that great spirit of the past, and to par- 
ticipate in the wonder and astonishment with which his mind 
was absorbed and filled, when, nearly four hundred, years ago, he 
preceded us in making the acquaintance of those fairy isles in 
that dreamy and seemingly unreal part of the world. Indeed, 
at times, it seemed as if we could almost feel the gaze of his gray, 
thoughtful and prophetic eyes. 

The foot-fall of the great Genoese discoverer iipon one of the 
long, low, Bahama islands, has ennobled the whole group. The 
subtle influence of that grand historic event pervades the sur- 
rounding air, and imparts a brilliant and prismatic radiance to 
objects in other respects insignificant. The woods and waters, 
the flowering shrubs, the climbing vines, the trees with their 
vich glossy foliage and luscious and golden fruits, and even the 
sable forms and faces of the happy negroes, glow with an added 
lustre in the light of that ever memorable event. Were those 
coral isles to-morrow ''in the deep bosom of the ocean buried," 
their memory would remain, for the Genius of History will ever 
keep and guard it in her imperishable archives. Ocean has no 
abyss deep and dark enough to hide it from the view of the men 
of the future. 

A diabolical presence also — the ghosts of bad men who have 
passed away — seems at times, even in our day, to lurk in the 
shadows, and to infect with distrust the light, upon the island 
of Xew Providence. Strong natures cannot be wholly shut up 
in hades. It is more than a, hundred and fifty years since Black 
Beard rendezvoucd at ]S^assau, and held his court under one of 
its trees. No robber of the sea, ancient or modern, surpassed 



eOttfkbUS A]<rD BtACK BEARD. 301 

liitn in courage, in cruelty or in crime. Columbus, by simply 
skirting the shores and landing upon one of the summer isles, 
secured for the whole group an immortality of fame. Black 
Beard infected them with an infamy as enduring as the memory 
of his crimes. The foot-fall of one hallowed the coralline rocks, 
the presence of the other so polluted the air as to permanently 
give to it the shadowy gloom of a lurking fear. The most charm- 
ing flower bed loses much of its fragrance and beauty as soon as 
it is known that a serpent has nestled there. 

Death cannot wholly destroy men who are good and great. 
They are not dead when they die. They enter upon that journey 
where the travel is all one way, and yet do not wholly leave us. 
Their suns descend behind the hills, but a zodiacal light still 
lingers in the heavens. So when earth's moral monsters pass 
away, shadows dark and chilly are for centuries projected into 
the sunlight. Hence we observed, that over the bright and beau- 
tiful waters, and along the shining shores of the emerald isles, 
the soft air is even now impregnated with amoral poison derived 
from pirates who have been dead more than a hundred years. 

In the Old World the traveler is often so occupied Avith the 
relics, monuments, history, traditions and legends of a past 
hoary and venerable with age, that he is inclined to overlook the 
present. In the new world the dark ind impenetrable shadows 
extend to modern times, and leave but a few centuries for the 
historic period. But even contemporaneous history is not wholly 
reliable, because of the bad habit of covering with the gay robes 
and bright ribbons of fiction, the simplicity and nakedness of 
truth. 

It was upon Friday, (a day which superstition has branded as 
unlucky) August 3d, 1492, at eight o'clock A. m., that Columbus 
with his three caravals, two of which were only decked fore and 
aft^ sailed from Palos upon what the world generally belieyed 

^6 



303 iSiiES OF SUMMEli. 

to be a *^ fool's errand." Reaching the' Canaries in safety, lie 
left Gomora on the Cth of September. At 10 o'clock p. m., Oc- 
tober 11th, A. D. 1492, Columbus saw or supposed he saw. a mov- 
ing light gleaming fitfully in the darkness. For three weeks, 
Herons, Pelicans and several other species of birds, had appeared 
in sight almost daily, as if to cheer and welcome him on his 
lonely way. Some even alighted on his vessels, and were hailed 
as the bearers of good tidings. Other mute, but most reliable 
witnesses, in constantly increasing numbers, had been encountered 
by his caravals, floating in the calm, warm waters, and had con- 
veyed to him the joyful intelligence that the great object of his 
search was near at hand. Four hours later, a gun fired from the 
Pinta, the vessel that led the little fleet, conveyed the thrilling 
intelligence that terra firma itself was actually in sight. In 
that supreme moment of his triumph a wild intoxication would 
have possessed a less lofty and heroic mind. The inspired proph- 
et of the fifteenth century, casting his eyes upwards, humbly 
returned jiis thanks to that Divine Being that had enlightened, 
sustained, guided and protected him in the great work to which 
he had devoted himself for so many years, and for the brilliant 
success with which at last his labors Avere crowned. 

The author of the "Land Fall of Columbus" has, with great 
boldness and apparent success, attacked the opinion heretofore 
so generally conceded to be true, that Columbus first landed u]3on 
thepi'csent island of St. Salvador, (sometimes called Cat Island.) 
The old belief received the endorsement of Washington Irving, 
(who did not deem it best '' to disturb the ancient landmarks,'") 
and also of Baron Humboldt, but the author of the '' Land Fall " 
has reproduced the original text of the journal which Columbus 
kept of his first voyage of discovery, as embodied in the letters 
which he wrote at the time, closely and critically examined its 
statements, and, with the assistance of modern official charts. 



THE LAISB FALL OF COLUMBUS. 303 

carefully followed the great nayigator's every movement, as min- 
wtelj described by himself, from his first landing npon the island 
which the natives called Guanahani, until he anchored off the 
island of Cuba. He arrives at the conclusion that Columbus 
first landed upon Watling's Island and named it San Salvador, 
and that he did not visit at all the island now known by that 
name. After carefully considering the facts which lead to this 
result, we are clearly of the opinion the author of the ''Land 
Fall " is entitled to the credit of exposing a great historical error 
after it had received the sanction of eminent writers, and been 
hallowed by time. 

"Watling's Island is one of the Bahamas, and nearly or quite two 
hundred miles distant in a north-easterly direction from Nassau. 
The great importance of this discovery as seen in the light of the 
four centuries which will soon be completed — so apparent to us — 
far exceeds all that Columbus had imagined in his wildest dreams. 
No wonder that Europe was thrown into a ferment of intense 
excitement when the intelligence of his wonderful success was 
made known. Many a long cycle of a thousand years had been 
completed, during all which time no human being, standing upon 
the eastern shores of the Atlantic, could discern anything in or be- 
yond the illimitable waste of waters but a Great IJNKisrowisr. A 
deep and profound mysteiy, like the pall of the darkest night, 
ever brooded over the billows that received the setting sun. 
Philosophers gazed but to speculate, men of fervid imaginations 
to dream, and poets, in measured numbers, to sing their weird 
and wildest songs. 

Upon the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, — in Abyssinia 
and Upper Egypt, — down the fertile valley of the Nile, — and 
upon both shores of the Mediterranean Sea, civilization, empire 
and imperial power had for thousands of years made their slow 
but grand and solemn march, only to be at last barred and baffled 
by a vast and unknown waste of waters. 



804 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

Columbus, with, his little fleet of three vessels, solved the prob- 
lem of the ages, dispelled the deep and profound mystery, and 
bridged the dark and unfathomable abyss. Landing upon the 
Bahamas, he impi-egnated the newly found Western world with 
the seminal principles of the old Eastern ciyilization. This clus- 
ter of keys and islands constitute the cradle in which Young 
America, with all his inventions and revolutionary ideas in em- 
bryo, was first rocked. How murky were the shadows that four 
centuries ago shrouded equally the Christian church and the most 
famous institutions of learning! Out of them the tall and com- 
manding form of Columbus rises, radiant with an effulgence that 
seems divine, ennobled and glorified by great truths in advance 
of his age. For eighteen long years he bore with marvelous forti- 
tude and equanimity the unsupplied and pressing wants which 
his poverty engendered, the delusive and broken promises of 
kings, the mistaken fears and bigotry of the good, the narrow- 
mindedness of the learned, and the ridicule and contempt, the 
scoffs and jeers of the ignorant and doubting world. 

The lesson of Columbus should never be forgotten by the emi- 
nent theologians and divines who minister at the altars of religion, 
and guard its profound mysteries in their small but sacred arks; 
nor by the votaries of science, who seem, while they explore the 
wonderful phenomena of nature, as disclosed upon our earth, or 
travel among the stars, to literally " walk with Grod." Let them 
ever remember that outside of cloistered cells and institutions 
richly endowed and furnished, in the future as in the past, the 
most valuable germs of progress will probably be found; that no 
proposition should be ignored because it is bold and startling; no 
truth ostracised because it is new. At the same time it may be 
well for some of the long haired, unshaved, and unkempt seers 
of our day, who have, as they think, some great revolutionary 
■and reformatory mission to fulfill, to consider that it may not be 



l:ilE BAHAMA INDIANS. 306 

less than two or three thousands of years before another Colum- 
bus will be born, and that like rank and noxious weeds in a good 
garden, superstition and error had root and flourished by the side 
of truth in the mind of the great discoverer of the New World. 

Mr. Moseley, in his Nassau Almanac, states that Columbus 
visited New Providence and called the island Fernandina, in 
honor of the king of Spain. This is very clearly a mistake. 
The author of the Land Fall agrees with Washington Irving that 
Exuma is the island which Columbus thus discovered and named. 
If we remember rightly, Bruce makes the same mistake in his 
Memoirs. 

The visitor at Nassau has ample time to muse and meditate. 
He is not wholly satisfied with the present. Looking at the dark 
murky shadows lying back of a few hundred years that envelope 
human history upon these islaiids, he asks the tangled vfoods, 
the coralline hills, the rude water-worn caverns, and the shell- 
strewn and honey- combed shores — What of the Past? There 
is no response. Neither records nor ruins furnish even historic 
riddles for its solution. Let us, therefore, stand where Colum- 
bus and his companions stood in October, 1492, and listen while 
he gives to his sovereign a description of what he then saw. We 
copy from his epistolary journal under date of the 13th of Octo- 
ber, the day after his "Land Fall:" 

" All were young persons, as I said before, and of good stature, 
and withal handsome, who came to the shore. The hair of these 
islanders is not crisp or wooly, but long and straight like that of 
Asiatics. The forehead is wide, more so, indeed, than any peo- 
ple I have yet seen. They have large handsome eyes, and are 
not black, but of the color of Canaries, as might be expected, 
since they are due west from the island of Hierro, one of that 
group. They are all well made, even to their hands; not pot- 
bellied, but exceedingly well formed. 



§0() ISLjES of SUifMEK. 

" They came to the ship in canoes, formed from the trunk of 
a tree, as long as a boat, and all from one log, curiously worked 
after their own fashion, and large enough to carry forty or fifty 
persons. Others they have, also, sufficient to contain one per- 
son. They are propelled by a paddle shaped like a baker's shovel, 
and glide about rapidly. They overturn and right them again 
when on the water, emptying them with calibashes which they 
have always with them. They bring balls of cotton thread, and 
other things too numerous to mention, and would exchange them 
for anything in return. I watched them very narrowly, to see 
if they had any gold, but could only see that they had a little 
piece hanging from the nose." 

In a subsequent letter he writes: " They swam out to our boats, 
bringing parrots and balls of cotton thread, with spears and sev- 
eral other things, all of which they exchanged for what we chose 
to give them — glass beads and hawk's bills. In fact we traded 
together most amicably, but they appeared to be a very poor race 
of people, deficient in many things. They go about naked as 
they were born, the women also, although I did not see but one 
[old] young one. Indeed every one that I saw was young; every 
one appeared to be under thirty years of age. 

" The hair of some was thick and long, like the tail of a horse. 
The hair of some was short, brought forward over the eye-brows; 
some wearing it long and never cutting it. Some again are 
painted, and the hue of their skin is similar in color to the Cana- 
ries — not black nor white. Some are painted white, and some 
red, or any other color. Some paint only their faces, and others 
their whole person, and some only their eyes and noses. 

"They have no weapons and appear to know of none, for I 
showed them swords, and they took them by the blade and cut 
themselves from sheer ignorance. They have no iron. Their 
spears are long, and instead of iron are pointed with the teeth ot 



£)ESCfeIt"l!'IONS BY COLUMfetJS. §01* 

a fish, and such hard substances." He says that some had scars, 
caused by wounds received when repelling invaders, (Caribs un- 
doubtedly.) 

" This is a tolerably large island, very level, with pine trees 
and plenty of water, and a large lake in the middle of it, without 
mountains, all covered with verdure which is pleasant to the 
eye. 

"These people are very amiable, and desirous of having our 
things, for when they have nothing to give us for them, they 
take what they can and jump into the water and swim off with 
it. But anything they have they give us readily for whatever 
we will exchange for it. They will even barter for broken crock- 
ery and glass." 

Upon going to another part of the island, when the people saw 
the Spaniards were not going to land, some of them, he says, 
"rushed into the sea and swam out to us, and we understood 
them to ask if we had come from the skies. One old man even 
got on to the boat, and others, men and women, called out at the 
top of their voices — ' come and see the men who have come from 
the skies; bring them something to eat and drink.' 

"They are a simple-minded and handsomely formed race. 

"I went after a canoe which shot away faster than any boat 
could; for speed they have great advantage over us." 

Again he writes: " The islands are very fertile, and have a fine 
air. 

"I saw even cotton cloth, made like mantles, and the people 
appeared more orderly, and the women wore a piece of cloth, 
which, however, scarcely concealed their sex. 

"There appears to be no kind of religion among them." 

He also speaks of the fishes as "of the most beautiful colorsr 
as if painted of a thousand different hues, and so brilliant that 
they astonish erery one, who, on this account, is anxious to see 



308 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

them. There are whales, also parrots and lizzards, but of beasts 
I have seen none." 

Again he says: " The people, one with another, are all of the 
same race, naked alike, and of the same stature. 

a * * * Q^J. xixQXi, who had gone for water, told me they 
went into their houses, which they found swept very clean, and 
that their beds and furniture were of cotton net. Their houses 
are like tents, and of a good height, Avith chimneys. But I have 
not seen among the many settlements I have met with, any one 
with more than twelve to fifteen houses." 

Again: ''The married women wear cotton aprons, but the 
girls none, excepting some above eighteen years of age." One 
man " had a piece of gold in his nose about the size of a half 
dollar. 

''Your highness may depend that this country is the most 
fertile, temperate, and even there is in the world." 

"My eye can never tire admu-ing so much beautiful verdure, 
and so different from ours too. 

"And the singing of the birds, and the flocks of parrots which 
are so numerous as to obscure the sky, are so delightful that no 
one could desire to leave it. The birds arc so numerous, and so 
different from ours that it is quite wonderful. And there are a 
thousand different kind of trees, and all with fruit and delicious 
perfume. " 

Under date of October 22d, 1492, he writes: "And many 
natives came to see us, similar to those of the other islands, all 
naked and painted, some white, some red,, some black, after their 
fashion. They brought spears and some cotton balls for trade. 
* * * Some of them wore bits of gold in their noses." 

The West Indian islands include the Bahamas, and, when dis- 
covered by the Spaniards, they were occupied by substantially 
one people. There existed minor differences, the results of their 



THE ABOEIGIKES OF THE WEST IlsTDIES, 309 

separation, but the early writers give them a common description. 
The Caribbean Islands were inhabited by a very different people. 
The two races were no doubt off-shoots from different portions 
of the neighboring continent. While the Oaribs were bold, rug- 
ged, aggressive and warlike, the former were amiable, docile, 
kind-hearted, generous and affectionate, and only fought when 
driven to it by the instinct of self-preservation. The contrast 
was that of the wolf and the lamb. The blood of the Caribs had 
not been exposed to the soothing influences of the atmosphere of 
their island homes long enough to have eliminated the cruel 
and savage taint it acquired in the cold, bleak, barren region 
where it no doubt received its race-mark. The inhabitants of the 
West Indies were confiding, frank, gentle and good-natured. The 
sexual passion was strong. " Love with this happy people was 
not a transient and fitful ardor only, but the source of all their 
pleasures, and the chief business of life. * * * They gave 
full indulgence to the instincts of nature, while the influence of 
the climate heightened the sensibility of the passions." 

" They had less strength and endurance than the Spaniards. 
Their limbs were pliant and active, and in their motions they 
displayed both gracefulness and ease. They were exj)ert divers, 
and their agility was eminently conspicuous in their dances, 
wherein they delighted and excelled, devoting the cool hours of 
night to this employment. It was their custom to dance from 
evening to dawn." Herrera says that their public dances, (for 
they had others highly licentious,) were appropriated to particular 
solemnities, and being accompanied with historical songs, were 
called Arretoes. 

They had an elastic ball game like that of cricket, which was 
called Bato. The ball was not caught in the hand, or returned 
with an instrument, but received on the head, the elbow or foot, 
" and the dexterity and force with which it was repelled was as- 
tonishing and inimitable." 



310 ISLES OF SUMMER 

" They tad remarkable sweetness of temper, and native good- 
ness of disjoosition." "All writers agree they were unquestion- 
ably the most gentle and benevolent of the human race." 

To their superiors they were submissive and respectful; to 
their enemies forgiving; while for their ancestors in spirit land 
they entertained an undying affection. 

Superstition, that old inhabitant of earth, indigenous in all 
climes, and existing in all ages, was domiciled upon the coral 
islands at the time of the Spanish discovery, and was as active 
as the indolent character of the climate permitted in forging 
fetters for the human mind, and holding men in bondage to fear. 
Priests performed ridiculous rites and ceremonies, interpreted 
the decrees and communicated the messages of deities whose evil 
designs they sought to placate with prayer. They Avere also the 
medical attendants of the sick. The union of the clerical and 
medical professions is to be expected wherever disease is believed 
to be the result of diabolical agencies, and not the executed pen- 
alty for violated physical laws. 

The islanders believed that the heaven which awaited the good 
after death, was a pleasant valley of luxurious repose and indo- 
lent tranquility— of cool shades and murmuring brooks, abound- 
ing in guavas and other delicious fruits, never scorched by drough t 
or desolated by the hurricane. Its chief happiness consisted in 
a re-union, forever indissoluble, with the loved friends and re- 
vered ancestors from whom they had been separated by death. 

They believed in one Supreme Being, and in many lesser 
divinities, but sought to win the favor of the demons who were 
permitted to rule and desolate their island world, by Avorshiping 
hideous idols which symbolized their unseen presence, and clearly 
manifested diabolical power. 

The authority of their caziques was hereditary, and it has been 
claimed that, in determining the succession, the children of a 



THE ABOEIGIIS'ES. 311 

cazique's sisters were preferred on account of the greater certainty 
of royal blood. The sovereigns were looked up to with reverence 
and obeyed with submission. Eoyal ornaments, numerous at- 
tendants, and a multitude of wives attested their royal power. 
Heroic songs, hymns of praise, public dances of honor, together 
with the notes of musical instruments made of shells, and the 
deafening noise of rude drums, formed a part of their funeral 
obsequies. 

The Bahamas interested but did not satisfy the the Spaniards. 
They sought in vain in the coralline rocks for the golden ores 
that gilded their fevered dreams. The passion for 

"Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold! 
Bright and yellow, hard and cold, '' 

was all pervading, and so absorbing and intense that they seemed 
dead to every tender sentiment and ennobling impulse. For a 
time poverty did_ for the islanders more than the greatest riches 
could have accomplished — peace and security, and the strange 
visitors whom they were ready to worship as divine, departed. 

Guileless, unsuspecting, generous and unselfish themselves, 
how could these aborigines understand the wonderful beings, who, 
from the vast solitudes of an illimitable ocean, had suddenly 
landed upon their picturesque shores? In the distant east from 
whence the strangers had come, only the morning sun, in golden 
effulgence, had ever before emerged. Were not these then, the 
children of the sun ? Had they not all of the divine and none 
■of the human? No wonder, that as Herrera states, they were 
at first never satisfied with looking at the Spaniards, but knelt, 
lifted up their hands and gave thanks to God, calling upon each 
other to admire the heavenly men! 

Afterwards, a new and strange interest invested these islands 



313 ISLES OF SUMMEK. 

of perpetual and unfading verdure. It was reported and believed 
by Juan Ponce de Leon and other bold navigators, that ujjon one 
of them existed water medicated and endowed by nature with 
most wonderful potency. In tangled wood or rocky cavern, bub- 
bled in the shadows or sparkled in the sunlight, that old dream 
of the ages — the fountain of perpetual youth; and men toiled, 
suffered, sickened and died in the vain search for the wonderful 
waters of immortality. It is indeed fortunate for the world, con- 
sidering the infamous character of many of those Spanish adven- 
turers, that this pleasing dream had no basis of fact upon which 
to rest. 

It has not been considered very strange, in an age which teemed 
with marvels of fact which far transcended in interest, novelty 
and importance, the wildest conceptions of the imagination, that 
men of intelligence implicitly believed in the existence of 

' ' A bright floral isle, 
The jewel of a smooth and silver sea, 

With springs iu which perennial summers smile, 
A power of causing immortality;" 

and that some were willing to risk their money and their lives in 
efforts to discover it. But the thread of life upon which these 
dreamers were suspended, continued to weaken as it shortened, 
and they soon found, as a practical fact, that the rejuvenating 
spring is situated upon the other side of the dark turbid waters 
of the river of death. 







^J# 



i?«y >Sir«e^, «V6'« end of Nassmt. 



CHAPTEE XX. 

Spanish Perfidy arid Cruelty. The Natives by Force and Fraud a/re Ca/r- 
ried to Hispaniola and Perish in its Mines. The Islands without inhabitants. ■ 
An English Captain Discovers rNew Providence. George III of England 
inaices a Royal Grant of the Bahamas to six Proprietors. Pirates Infest the 
Islands, Black Beard. He Establishes Himsslf Upon New Providence. The 
Early Governors. Summary Punishment inflicted by the Spaniards, and by 
the French and Spaniards.. Nassau, Built and Named in 1694. The British 
Government Purchase the Proprietary Title to the Islands. Nassau is Cap- 
tured and Abandoned by the Amsriaans Under Commodore Hopkins. In 1781 
it is Captured and Garrisoned by the Spaniards. It is Re-taken by American, 
Loyalists. The Abolition of Slavery. - ., 

"O nature! what hadst thou to do in hell, 
When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend 
In such a paradise?"— Shakespeaee. 

*^I do not give you to Posterity as a pattern to imitate, but an 
example to deter." — Junius. 

Columbus was a zealous member of the Church of Eome, and 
his mind seemed ever imbued with a strong religious sentiment. 
Eeligious zeal did much to encourage him to undertake and prose- 
cute with tireless energy and unwavering faith his voyages of 
discovery. He believed himself raised up by Divine Providence 
for the purpose of communicating to the heathen a knowledge 
of the true God. But his royal master, Ferdinand of Spain, 
saw in the amiable, credulous and confiding Bahama Indians 
not men having immortal souls to be saved, but only living 
mechanisms capable of being stolen and utilized in money mak- 
313 27 



314 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 

ing. He did not merely tarnish his reputation, but he earned 
for himself eternal infamy, and the scorn and contempt of good 
men in all future times, by a royal order under which the entire 
native population of the Bahamas were conveyed to Hispaniola, 
and forced to labor in its mines. The removal was brought about 
by the grossest fraud. The ^^ children of the sun" promised to 
take them to those Elysian isles where they could enjoy the society 
of their dead ancestors, and revel with them in supreme aud never 
ending delights. Subjected to tasks to which they were unaccus- 
tomed, and for which they were unfitted, disappointed and broken 
hearted, it did not require many years for death to do for them 
all that the Spaniards had promised; 

" The whole race sank beneath the oppressor's rod, 
And left a blank among the works of God." 

The " heavenly men " proved to be greater demons than any 
those unfortunate islanders had ever, by prayer and sacrifice, 
endeavored to appease and conciliate. 

For a time the Bahamas were without human inhabitants; 

" Still nature spread her fruitful sweetness round, 
Breathed on the air, and brooded on the ground." 

The fairy isles lost nothing of their charming loveliness; jthe 
Boff, perfumed, and medicated air retained all its healing and 
attractive qualities; while the ocean kissed with its crested waves 
the white beaches and honey-combed shores, and ceaselessly 
uttered its regretful murmurs. 

Capt. William Sayle, an English navigator, entered the harbor 
of Nassau in the year 1607, and gave to the island of New Provi- 
dence its present name, in commemoration of his escape from 
threatened shipwreck. England claimed the Bahamas as an 



BAHAMA PIRATES. 315 

appendage of the British crown, upon the ground of his discovery, 
although mors tlian a hundred years before Cohimbus had made 
the acquaintance of some of them, sailed through the groujD, and 
claimed all for Ferdinand and Isabella. Soon after this alleged 
discovery by Capt. Sayle, Charles the Second of England made 
a royal grant of all the Bahamas, including the islands which 
Columbus visited in 1492, to the Duke of Albemarle, Lord Craven, 
Sir John Caterel, Lord Berkley, Lord Sibley, and Sir Peter Cole- 
ton — the proprietors of Carolina; who did very little for the 
islands which was of any service to England or to themselves. 

Afterwards, the outlaws of civilization and savages of the sea, 
frequented the islands, and made them the center of their hostile 
operations against the commerce of the world. With vessels of 
light draft, they mastered the intricacies of the tortuous chan- 
nels, and made themselves familiar with the points of special 
danger, the safest lines of approach and retreat, the harbors of 
refuge, the best places for concealment, and the strongholds of 
defense. No light-houses, buoys or reliable charts warned the 
mariner, or guided him in his course over the perilous waters. 
Countless rocks and reefs, extensive shoals and banks, intricate 
currents and cross-currents, severe storms, and an occasional 
hurricane, would seem to have been sufficient without the still 
more fearful peril of armed and demoniac brigands of the sea. 

The pirates who succeeded the original inhabitants must have 
been lineally descended from the early inhabitants of England, 
if the following descrij)tion of the latter by Greene is to be credi- 
ted: " From the first, the daring of the English race broke out 
in the secrecy and suddenness of the pirate's swoop, in the fierce- 
ness of their onset, in the careless glee with which they seized 
either sword or oar. 'Foes are they,' sang a Eoman poet of the 
time, 'fierce beyond other foes, and cunning as they are fierce; 
the sea is their school of war, and the storm their friend; they 
are sea-Avolves that prey on the pillage of the Avorld.' " 



816 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 

■ The most violent of the sea-wolves that infested the v/aters of 
the Bahamas, and the neighboring seas, was a native of Bristol, 
England, by the name of Edward Tench. • The historic name of 
Bifck Beard was conferred npon him by his cotemporaries on 
account of the color and quantity of hair which helped so much 
to give him a wild and savage appearance. He first made himself 
felt and feared as a privateer. Sailing in that capacity in the 
early part of the eighteenth century, from the island of Jamaica, 
he soon distinguished himself by his daring intrepidity and reck- 
less courage. Between privateering and piracy there is but a 
single short step. A little practice in capturing, robbing and 
destroying the merchant ships of one nation, is a good prepara- 
tory and training school, in which an apt scholar, like Tench, is 
soon prepared for the business of waging merciless war on the 
commerce of the world. 

Black Beard soon had a piratical fleet well manned and power- 
fully armed, which, for a short time, was a terror to all honest 
men who frequented the West India Islands or the neighboring 
shores of the main land. His audacity and power are indicated 
by the fact that the city of Charleston was once coerced into 
furnishing him with a valuable supply of medical stores, by the 
assurance that if his demands were refused, he would burn the 
vessels and kill the prisoners then in his possession which he had 
captured, and send the heads of the latter to the Governor of 
South Carolina. He was finally hunted down and killed in a 
bloody hand to hand fight among the inlets of Xorth Carolina. 
It is difficult at the present day to realize the extent and char- 
acter of the peril from, pirates to which a century and a-half ago 
persons were subjected who sailed in the waters v/hich penetrate 
or surround the Bahamas. The black flag with its death's head 
and cross-bones, is a thing of the past. A marine police, mount- 
ed upon powerful and fast sailing steamers, and armed with 



CAPTttRED AHD PUNTSHED BY SPANIARDS 317 

breecli-loading cannon, haye driven the freebooters from the sea. 
But while history and tradition still preserve their memory, their 
blood, to some extent, courses down to our times in the channels 
of descent. The motto upon the Bahama Coat of Arms, and 
which is engraved upon its Great Seal — "Expulsis Piratis, lies- 
titutia Commercia'' — is an official and durable testimonial of 
the power which the pirates possessed, and the terror they in- 
spired in former times. 

The proprietors in 1G70, appointed one Collingworth (or Chil- 
lingworth), Grovernor of the Bahamas, but the inhabitants con- 
cluded they had no need of him, and therefore took forcible 
possession of his person, and shipped him off to Jamaica. 

In 1G77 the proprietors conferred the vacant gubernatorial 
crown ujDon one Clark, whose great exaltation was purchased at 
the price of his life. His piratical subjects, by their filibuster- 
ing excursions, had so exasperated their Spanish neighbors, that 
the latter invaded K'ew Providence, destroyed the houses upon 
it by fire, took all the inhabitants captive who did not find refuge 
in the woods, carried Covernor Clark to Cuba, and, it is said, 
tortured him to death and roasted him. 

In 1684, the Spaniards again surprised the people upon the 
island, and, after destroying the improvements which had been 
made, they carried off some of the inhabitants. After the inva- 
ders left, such of the inhabitants as survived, emerged from their 
hiding places in a forlorn and necessitous condition, again started 
a settlement, and in 1687 chose a Presbyterian minister by the 
name of Bridge, their governor — a rather heavy and cumbrous 
title considering the limited number and poverty of the people. 
He held his high oiSce three years. 

In 1690 the proprietors sent out one Jones to be Governor 
*' in and over " the Bahamas. He tyranized over the people with 
a high and unscrupulous hand^ being aided by the pirate Avery 



01§ ISLtlS OF SUMMER. 

wlio commanded a sliip with 43 guns. When the latter was 
away, the outraged people put the Governor in prison, and chose 
Ashley, one of their number. President. The pirates returned 
and set Jones at liberty, who in turn imprisoned all whom he 
suspected of hostility to himself, and desired the pirates to carry 
them off the island and make v/ay with tliem. 

In 1694, Jones was superceded by one Trott, whom the pro- 
prietors appointed in his place. He U])erated the imprisoned in- 
Jiabitants, but allowed. Jones to depart without a trial. Cowed 
by his fears, he also permitted the pirates to land with their 
plunder upon the island. The inhabitants fraternized with the 
freebooters, who remained unmolested. To protect themselves 
from the Spaniards, the inhabitants built a small fort upon which 
they mounted twenty-two cannon. "They also built a town of 
160 houses which they called I^assau." 

In 1697 Webb was appointed Grovernor. After holding that 
office two years, the discretion of his excellency got the better of 
his valor, and he left for Pennsylvania. 

In 1699, while away, he, without the knowledge of the pro- 
prietors, installed in his place a mulatto by the name of Eldridge, 
a man of most infamous character, who secured the pirates for 
his protectors and patrons, and thus was enabled to retain his 
title and his power for two years. 

In 1701 the proprietary "^^ lords" conferred the office of Gov- 
ernor upon one Haskel, who put his immediate predecessor into 
prison, and also some of the inhabitants, whom he caused to be 
prosecuted for abetting the pirates. His zeal proved to be greater 
than his power, for in five weeks after his arrival upon the island, 
his turbulent subjects seized and ironed him, and after keeping 
him a close prisoner for six weeks, shipped him back to England. 

These practical believers in self-government appointed one of 
their associates named Lichtwood, (or Lightfoot,) president and 



S-REN-CH AN'D SPANISH IN'VASION'S. 319 

deputy Governor, who held his office for two years, when the 
French and Spaniards surprised, captured, and burned Nassau, 
plundered its inhabitants, destroyed the fort, and carried the 
president and a number of prisoners to Havana. Shortly after- 
wards these formidable enemies returned to Nassau and captured 
and carried away all the inhabitants and negroes they could find. 

The few who remained fled to Carolina and A^irginia, and the 
island for a short period was uninhabited. The pirates then for 
a number of years made it their general place of rendezvous, and, 
it is said, buried their booty in its woods. 

Soon after the last invasion, Burch was ajjpointed Governor 
by the proprietors, but, uj^on his arrival at Providence, he dis- 
covered that subjects and ruler were all consolidated in his own 
person. Like a horseless rider, he could perambulate his capital 
on foot and alone, with the useless and unused whij) and spurs 
of his high office, but a few thousands of subjects would have 
been extremely handy and desirable as a source of supply for his 
empty exchequer, for even upon small islands a man cannot get 
fat or exist long upon his titles, although, as in this instance, 
they may enable him to live in history. So this Governor with- 
out subjects, pocketed his formidable credentials, packed his 
trunks with the gilded insignia and baubles of his high office, 
and soon exchanged the new world for the old — a wiser if not a 
better man. He aj^pears to have had no desire to play the part 
of Eobinson Crusoe, and possessed so little of the ambition that 
inspired poor Sancho Panza, that he was not satisfied to be the 
Governor even of a whole archipelago of unoccupied islands. 

The lord proprietors became fully satisfied at last, that they 
had upon their hands a good sized Bahama elephant. Had their 
royal master been pleased to have given them, in lieu of the Isles 
of Summer, an equal number of square miles of volcanic moun- 
t^iiig in the moon, which some English astronomer had falsely 



320 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

claimed to have first discovered, they would have occupied a 
more enviable position, for while the grant would have added 
nothing to their income, it could not possibly have impoverished 
or annoyed them. This pestiferous nest of pirates had onlj 
served as a burial place for their money and their hopes. 

The British government finally, in the interest and for the 
security of commerce, bought the title of the legal representatives 
of the six proprietary interests, giving for each £2,000. 

Upon the petition of the merchants of London and Bristol, 
interested in the security of commerce, King George I appointed 
Mr. Ward Kogers G-overnor, and sent him with 'a force of one 
hundred men and an ample supply of all necessary stores to fortify 
New Providence. He arrived out in 1717, and an act of indem- 
nity having been passed, the pirates accepted of its terms, sur- 
rendered without a struggle, and became, thereafter, down to 
1742, when Bruce wrote, " the principal inhabitants oftheislajul." 

According to Mr. Mosely, the gubernatorial office was filled by 
Mr. Eogers from 1717 to 1721, and from 1728 to 1733; George 
Phenny or Finney was Governor during the intervening , years. 
The population did not exceed 1,000 persons. 

During this period of sixteen years the executive office seems 
to have been well filled, and peace, security and confidence pre- 
vailed, so that many families, besides many Palatines, settled and 
made improvements upon the islands. 

In 1733 Kichard Fitz Williams was aiDpointcd Governor, and 
with ample stores, a force of fifty men, and an engineer named 
Thomas Moore, arrived at Xew Providence, with special directions 
. to fortify the place. This new colonial Governor was arbitrary 
and tyrannical, and so abused his power that "the best of the 
inhabitants and all the Palatines abandoned their improvements 
and left the idand." The engineer died suddenly bafore he had 
made much progress in his work. In the bad business of oppress- 



THE EAKLY GOVEEISTORS. 3S1 

ing the people, the Governor had the assistance and active co- 
operation of a member of the council, the judge of the court of 
admiralty, and one Archibald, ("his excellency's" servant,) who 
silenced opposition by knocking its authors down. The British 
sovereigns appear to have generally made their Bahama Governors 
out of very bad material. It was difficult as well as expensive 
for the oppressed islanders to make their complaints heard across 
the wide and stormy Atlantic, but three prominent inhabitants 
succeeded in reaching London, and preferred '^ charges of a very 
extraordinary nature against the Governor," who, after much 
delay, was ordered to meet his accusers, and defend himself 
against their formidable indictment. After a long and expensive 
trial, the charges were sustained and the Governor removed. 

In 1738 John Tinker was appointed Governor, and made the 
people happy in the commencement of his administration by his 
removals and administrative reforms, but ho appears, from Bruce's 
account founded upon personal knowledge, to have developed 
some of the worst qualities of his predecessors. In the most 
arbitrary, unjust and illegal manner, he made a variety of orders 
for the disposal of very valuable prize property captured by a 
privateer, for the purpose of enriching himself, and benefitting 
certain people of ISTassau. 

Peter Henry Bruce, in April, 1741, arrived in Nassau, and 
and commenced work upon its fortifications under a commission 
from the British government. An old fort, very much out of 
repair, called Fort Nassau, within which were wooden barracks 
in a tumble-down condition, then stood on the north side of 
what is now known as Flemish Square, where the present stone 
barracks are situated. It had sixteen badly-mounted guns; the 
remainder of its armament consisted of guns in part spiked, in 
part charged with stones and sand, in part buried below high- 
ivater mark, and in part scattered about the place; and of gun' 



3^^ ISLES OF STJMMEll. 

carriages, trucks and sliells, each, of which appeared to have 
started out upon its own account to explore the island. Many 
of the guns had been used as ballast for vessels. Mr. Bruce, 
after collecting and testing the guns, found he had sixty-four six, 
nine, twelve and eighteen pounders fit for service. 

In repairing and building fortifications at Nassau, Mr. Bruce 
labored under great and peculiar difiiculties, which we mention 
because they indicate the destitution and condition of Nassau at 
that time. There was but one mason, and not a wheeled vehicle 
of any kind in the place. He imported tAvo brick-layers from 
Philadelphia, .&nd taught them how to cut and lay stone. No 
laborers could be hired unless they were furnished with provi- 
sions, supplies of which he j)rocured from New York, for ''the 
natives lived principally upon tortoise and fish, any kind of flesh 
meat being a great rarity, " 

Kumors of another Spanish invasion secured for Mr. Bruce the 
co-operation of the Bahama legislature in his efforts to suitably 
fortify the place. The east entrance, or " back door " of Nassau, 
required to be guarded, and the present Fort Montague was at 
that time erected. The Governor laid its foundation stone on 
the 10th day of June, A. D. 1741, in the presence of the prin- 
cipal inhabitants of the island. A sea-battery was erected near 
it at the same time. Necessary building stone Avould have been 
brought from the woods upon the lieads of the negroes, had not 
the alarmed local authorities furnished the necessary boats for 
its transportation. Pallisades were made of mastic wood, which 
Mr. Bruce states, ''is as hard and heavy as iron, and musket 
balls make no impression upon it." The inhabitants informed 
him that it would last a century, and was proof against swivel 
shot. The pallisades could be cut and worked only when green. 

Then, as now, the rocks Avcre soft below the surface, and easily 
cut, but hardened when exposed to the air. Cannon balls, when 
fired into the soft stone, Avere buried as in sand l)anks. 



Mr. Bruce found sufficient leisure time while at Nassau to 
collect much historical information which he published in his 
''Memoirs." Most of the facts contained in the foregoing his- 
torical summary are collated from his book. So far as we haye 
been able to learn, no other writer either preceded or followed 
him in sketching the history of the Bahamas. The historic pen 
which Bruce laid down in 1742, when he left Nassau to make 
good the defenses of Charleston, S, C, no one has taken up. 
The soothing air of the Isles of Summer is not fayorable to the 
making or writing of history. We haye gleaned but a few items 
with which to fill the intervening historical chasm measured by 
the past one hundred and thirty-seyen years. 

When the independence of the United States was confirmed, 
and established by the treaty of peace in 1782, there were many 
inhabitants of the Carolinas and Georgia, who, during the reyo- 
lutionary war, retained their affection for the mother country, 
and their loyalty to its goyernment. These people lacked faith 
in the republic, and the same spirit which induced them or their 
ancestors to emigrate to the American colonies, caused them to 
abandon their new homes and seek their fortunes elsewhere. 
Many of them removed with their slaves to the Bahamas, and 
commenced new plantations upon a number of the islands. The 
yirgin soil for a few seasons yielded large harvests; but its fertil- 
ity was soon exhausted. Dej)rived of trees and bushes, the fields 
were scorched by the hot sun, while swarms of destructiye in- 
sects consumed and otherwise destroyed the scanty harvests. It 
required but a few years to complete the financial ruin of the 
new settlers. Their improvements and negroes were of little 
yaiue in the absence of paying crops. What had been saved of 
their fortunes in the States speedily disappeared, and they were 
left destitute even of the means of removal from the little islanda 
in which their courage and hopes were entombed. 



!ijM ISMS OF StMMEfi. 

During the war of the American revolution the ishmcl of Kcvr 
Providence was for a brief time a part of the young American 
republic, and the starry flag floated in triumph from all the forts 
and flag staffs of Nassau, and decorated the governor's house 
on the crest of its hill. The bold and intrepid Commodore Hop- 
kins, with a small body of men, accomplished this result. The 
American commander very soon made up his mind, as did Col- 
umbus before him, that he could do much better elsewhere. In 
fact, there were no lofty mountain crags upon the Bahamas, 
where the great American eagle could build its nest, and no suffi- 
cient room upon the island of New Providence for the national 
bird to fully and comfortably spread its wings. The island 
seemed designed by Divine Providence for parrots and birds that 
were satisfied to spend their lives in the hot sun, admiring the 
beautiful plumage which the brackish waters of the still and 
shallow lagoons reflected. So the Commodore furled the stars 
and stripes, and abandoned as worthless the island he had so gal- 
lantly captured. 

In the year 1781, a Spanish force made up in part of some 
American volunteers, took military possession of Nassau, and 
o-arrisoned it with six hundred troops. A short time previous 
to the notification of the treaty of peace, Lieut. Col. Deveaux, 
of the loyal militia of South Carolina, planned, organized and 
led an expedition against Nassau, in which great boldness, in- 
genuity, address and ability were displayed. With two armed 
brigantines and only fifty volunteers, he sailed from St. Augus- 
tine, and, after obtaining some recruits, (principally negroes,) 
from Eleuthera and the neighboring islands, he landed with his 
little handful of adventurers upon the island of New Providence 
a little to the eastward of Fort Montague. The officers of that 
fort were completely taken unawares, and when the column of 
attack reached the ramparts, only one solitary sentinel was in 



!j-AfeSAtJ CAPTURE!) BY AMERICAN LOYALISTS. §35 

sight to receive them. He had a lighted match in his hand, 
ready to blow up the fortress if the exigencies of the case should 
require it, but the intrepidity of Col. Deveaux who headed the 
assailants, thwarted his design; springing upon the bewildered 
and astonished sentinel, Col. Deveaux made him his prisoner, 
and immediately afterwards, without a struggle or even a parley, 
the fort, with its garrison, armament and military stores was 
surrendered. The Colonel, quickly, and without opposition, 
proceeded with an attacking column to the crest of the hill and 
to the grounds upon which the Governor's house was situated, 
overlooking the town. McKinnen says: 

" Every artifice was used to deceive the Spaniards, both as to 
the number and description of the enemy they had to contend 
with. A show of boats was made, continually rowing from the 
vessels, filled with men, who apparently landed, but in fact con- 
cealed themselves by lying down as they returned to the vessels, 
and afterwards made their appearance, as a fresh supply of trooj)s 
proceeding to disembark. Men of straw, it is said, were dressed 
out to increase the apparent number on the heights; and some 
of the troops, to intimidate the Spaniards, were painted and dis- 
guised as their inveterate foes, the Indians. One or two galleys 
in the harbor had been captured, and, trusting to the circum- 
stances in his favor. Colonel Deveaux summoned the Governor 
to surrender, with a pompous description of his formidable force. 
Some hesitation being at first discovered, the Colonel seconded 
his overtures with a well-directed shot at the Governor's house 
from a field-piece, during his deliberation, which produced an 
immediate capitulation. The Spanish troops, in laying down 
their arms, it is said, could hot refrain from expressing the ut- 
most mortification and confusion as they surveyed their con- 
querors, not only so inferior in point of numbers, but ludicrous 
in their dress and military appearance." 

^8 



S26 ISLES OF SUMME^w 

By the terms of the treaty of peace, the title of the king of 
Great Britain to the Bahamas was establislied. Since that time, 
for nearly a hundred years, the islands haye remained one of 
the out-lying portions of the British Empire. Situated at one 
of the gates of entrance to the G-ulf of Mexico, near to our shores, 
and in the path of our commerce, nothing prevents Britain's 
possession from being a menace but their insignificance and 
weakness in a military point of yiew. 

The late war of the rebellion demonstrated the capabilities of 
Nassau and its harbor for mischief Avhen occupied in time of 
war by a professedly neutral, but covertly hostile power. Except 
during the period covered by our late war — 1861 to 1865 — the 
history of Nassau from 1783 to the present time, has been as 
dull and devoid of interest (outside of that which accompanies 
wrecks and hurricanes,) as the still and shallow waters of a 
mangrove lake. But, as has been well said, a nation is most pros- 
perous when it furnishes the least for the historian to record; 

"And noiseless falls the foot of time 
Which only treads on flowers." 

One event, of an extremely radical and revolutionary character, 
should not, however, be passed by unnoticed — the abolition of 
slavery. This result was accomplished without the loss of a life, 
the firing of a gun, or disturbance of any kind. By the silent 
operation of a law enacted upon an island some four thousand 
mibs away, upon the other side of the wide and stormy Atlantic, 
all of the enslaved Bahama negroes were changed from chattels 
into men, and became at once free citizens of that great emjjire 
which circles the world, and upon which the sun never sets.. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Nassaii Beoisited. Lack of Confidence in tlie Northern March. Missing 
' Trunks— Man and His Clothes. The New York and Nassau Steamboat Li?ie. 
The Western Texas. Notable Passengers. The Fountain of Youth on Litch- 
field Hill. Fernandina. Picturesque Shores. Sea-birds. The Mouth of the 
St. John's— its Bar and Breakers. A Visit to St. Nicholas. Incidents and 
Scenes in the Crulf of Florida. '' Bank Sharks." Porpoises. Crossing the 
Chilf Stream. Bolphins. Sun-set Views. Arrival at Nassaii. 

" Once more upon the water! yet once more ! 
And the waves roll beneath me like a steed 
That knows its rider — welcome to their roar!" — Byron. 

Whek we awoke Thursday morning, March 4th, 1880, the air 
was filled with the melody of the birds of early spring, and the 
soft sweet notes of the blue birds were especially noticeable. The 
•air was as warm and genial as that of a pleasant morning in May. 
Gentle zephyrs sported with the leafless branches of the orchard 
and forest trees, and lovingly kissed and quickened with a new 
energy the arbutus, the crocus, the daffodil and other flowers, 
that were courageously pushing their long buried heads out of 
the ground to see if winter, their natural enem3^ had retreated 
to its arctic home. What folly, we exclaimed, to leave the 
shores of Connecticut and encounter the perils of an ocean voy- 
age in search of a summer that is already here ! But we had 
good reason to mistrust appearances. The northern March has 
an established reputation. Its record is as old as the centuries 
that have passed away. Though it approached concealed in the 

327 



328 ISLES OF SUMMER, 

gay mantle of spring, and greeted us with sunny smiles, we 
knew that more disease and discomfort lay ambushed within its 
thirty-one days than can be found in any three of the remaininij 
months of the year. It might deceive the flowers — they iiave 
perished in its frosts before; and the birds that have more mel- 
ody and beauty than mind and brains; and tempt the fish back 
to their old spawning grounds — a shad cannot be expected to 
know any better — but as for us, we said, we would seek for sum- 
mer where summer lives and reigns throughout the entire circle 
of the revolving year, where the northern March is unknown. 

Our arrangements were soon made, and the steamer Elm City 
landed us safely in Now York, after a refreshing night's sleep. 
Before the break of day, while we skirted the eastern shore of 
Manhattan Island, we looked out of our stateroom window, 
through the murky and humid air, upon the sleeping city, and 
mused and marveled at the wondrous changes which an hour or 
two of daylight would produce. Its shipping and great business 
arteries were but dimly revealed in the gas-light and lamp-light, 
while gloomy vapors concealed from view its dome of stars. The 
fevered and mad pulses that so wildly beat and throb by day, 
were soothed and quieted by kind nature's grand opiate and re- 
storative, sleep. Day and night work wondrous changes in our 
country's great commercial ca23ital. Ocean in calm and storm 
is not more iinlike than a great city at mid-day and mid-night. 
0, how we abominate the horrid noises of its crowded streets — 
the awful solitude of its thoroughfares! 

It was between eight and nine o'clock in the morning when 
the astonishing fact was discovered that our trunks had not ac- 
companied us to New York, they having been left unchecked at 
the steamboat dock at New Haven! Our stateroom in the Wes- 
tern Texas was engaged, and the steamer was advertised to sail 
at 3 p. M. of the same day. Had we lost our money we could have 



MISSING- TRUNKS. 829 

drawn for more, or borrowed or got trusted, perliai^s. If we 
had even lost our reputation or character we might get along 
among strangers by leading a virtuous life in the future, and wo 
knew that God forgives us if man does not.' Even the loss of 
reason may prove to be a temporary affair which the quiet and 
medicated air of the ocean has power to sometimes restore. But 
to lose one's clothes — to leave behind one's wardrobe, just as the 
ship that is to carry you to distant countries is getting up steam 
to take you away, is a calamity so crushing and overwhelming 
that one would hardly desire such a misfortune to befall his bit- 
terest enemy. Why, character and respectability, social joosltion, 
pivilizatien, everything that makes a man among men and a lady 
.among women, is involved in one's personal dry goods. When 
one begins to wear clothes he ceases to be a savage, and is indeed 
almost a Christian. It is true we were bound for the isles of 
perpetual summer, where clothes are not required to meet any 
physical want, and are only worn to indicate that man is not a 
brute beast; but still we, and especially the female half of us, 
were really horrified at the idea of leaving New York u23on a long 
journey, almost as naked as we were born. 

A young and efiEicient officer of the New Haven Steamboat 
Comi^any came to our relief, utilized the telegraph, and thus 
endeavored to secure for our trunks a place on board the Conti- 
nental, which was to leave New Haven for Now York at 10 a, m. 
A delay in the sailing time of the Western Texas was promised 
us^ and we waited in a state of mingled hope and fear the slow 
creeping of the languid hours. 0, how much depended on the 
result! Whether we should leave our native land decent, re- 
spectable people, or otherwise, all depended upon the arrival or 
non-arrival on time of those ill-starred and sad-fated trunks. 
We sat upon the deck of the Western Texas and closely scruti- 
nized every approaching steamer. How beautifully, like gigan- 



330 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

tic white- feathered "Water fowls, they unceasingly cut and skim- 
med the dimpled waters which constitute that grand navigable 
highway that se]3arates and yet makes one two great cities! At 
half -past three o'clock, a steamer more beautiful than the rest, 
with a proud air of conscious superiority, made her appearance, 
and as she changed her course to enter Peck's slip, the name 
"Continental" was plainly discernable. The next twenty min- 
utes were the longest and most anxious ones we ever experienced. 
Stars may wander from their spheres and he lost forever, and 
not affect us in the least — but to lose all one's wardrobe, includ- 
ing one's newest and best ''store-clothes" — ah! that was alto- 
gether more than our equanimity could endure; thefe was no 
relief or palliation for it in the philosophical reflections and teach- 
ings of a life time. There is an end to all things, and we de- 
voutly thank God that suspense and fear have their limits. The 
last one of at least fifty baggage wagons that we examined con- 
tained the missing objects of our heart's then fondest affections. 
The countenance of that old Jew who welcomed back the return- 
ing prodigal son, was certainly less wreathed with smiles, and less 
illumined with the light of a new joy, than was ours at beholding 
at that auspicious but late hour, those missing trunks; and, after 
seeing that they were properly checked and shipped, we went 
again on board and were soon employed in reading Milton's great 
work — so evidently composed for such an occasion as this — " Par- 
adise Regained." 

The sea treated us tenderly. For a time it foamed, hissed, 
howled and shook us up, but only, by giving us a slight taste and 
token of its powers, to make us more appreciate the greatness 
and goodness of its forbearance. For perhaps a hundred miles 
each side of Hatteras, we crossed the great ocean storm belt, and 
the sky lowered upon us as if in anger, but we soon sped away 
from the impending danger and basked on deck in the warm; rays 



THE WESTERN TEtAS. 331 

of a more southerly sun. Although out of sight of land, we 
skirted sufficiently near the Atlantic's western shore to have the 
constant company of large white gulls, who, to some extent, de- 
pended upon our ship for their supplies. The occasional appear- 
ance of steamers and vessels with sails spread to the wind, clearly 
indicated that we were traversing one of the great frequented 
but trackless paths of the sea. We passed the entrance to 
Charleston harbor, and if we could only have prolonged the day- 
light for a few hours, we would have reached Port Royal, our 
first stopping place, the third night after leaving New York. A 
gentleman with a sea-glass reported that he saw trees upon the 
Carolina shore, but we suspected he was somewhat aided by his 
imagination. 

The Western Texas is one of a line of steamers which runs 
between New York and Nassau, touching at one or more of our 
southern ports going and returning. They are owned by C. H. 
Mallory & Co., and carry the mail under a long contract with 
the Bahama government, -which pays the company a handsome 
subsidy for the service. From the position and nearness of the 
Bahamas to our coast, intimate and close commercial intercourse 
between them and the United States is inevitable. 

The Texas is a new boat, about three years old, and has supe- 
rior passenger accommodations. Its main saloon, '^social hall" 
and staterooms, are roomy, very handsomely finished and fur- 
nished, and uncommonly pleasant. Neatness, cleanliness, order 
and efficiency are marked characteristics, and comfort and con- 
fidence are the result. The table, during our voyage, was sup- 
plied with an abundance of well-cooked food, including all the 
substantials and many of the delicacies that are to be met with 
in a good hotel. She registers 1250 tons, and is one of the 
largest of the line; the freight and passengei' business is not suffi- 
cient to warrant the use of larger vessels. 



3§^ ISLES OP SUMMEfi. 

While our passenger list was small, we were remarkably favored 
in respect to the general good character of all, and the excep- 
tionally high character of some of our passengers. Among them 
were included the venerable ex-Chief Justice of Connecticut, the 
Honorable Origen S. Seymour, of Litchfield, and his wife; the 
Honorable George C. Woodruff, a veteran of the bar of Litch- 
field county, for legal ability probably second to no lawyer in 
our State, and formerly a member of Congress, and his wife; 
Mrs. Sanford, the widow of the late Judge Sanford, formerly of 
the Connecticut Supreme Court, and several members of her 
family, aud an old soa captain who had spent the greater part of 
some forty years upon the ocean. We never looked upon the 
Litchfield delegation without feeling a strong sentiment of state 
pride, and personal veneration and admiration. What a grand 
.stock! What a place is old Litchfield for mental,, moral and phy- 
sical development! At the ripe age of seventy-six, with what an 
elastic stej) our old judicial chieftain trod the steamer's deck! 
How keen his intellect! How bright and sparkling his soul-lit 
eye ! How youthful, ever green and sunny his spirits! The great 
leader of judicial reform, there was not a fossil or a barnacle 
about hira. But, toweriug high and strong above all, was his 
tender devotion, his unremitting care and watchfulness, his de- 
voted and unflagging aflrection aud love for his aged and sea sick 
wife, the mother of his stalwart and able sons! Turning from 
him to the hale, hearty, rugged Woodruff, full of the learned 
lore of the law, we inwardly exclaimed that the dream of the past 
is a veritable fact — there is a " fountain of perpetual youth," and 
it bubbles up on the top of Litchfield hill, and these are they 
who have drank of its wonderful waters. May their shadows 
never grow less, nor their blood cease to circulate in the veins 
and arteries of the men of the future! 

Having freight on board for Fernandina, it was necessary for 



US to go up for a short distance the St. Mary's — a river that con- 
stitutes in part the line of division between Georgia and Florida. 
We remained outside all one night, and in the early morning 
cautiously proceeded towards the city, here and there feeling our 
way with the sounding line. Nearly all the day was consumed 
in discharging freight. The weather Avas so threatening that 
we were content to simply view the city from the upper deck. 
One colored policeman, black and dirty, was on duty at the 
wharf. lie much needed a new uniform, but his '^ billy," and 
the revolver that protruded conspicuously out of one of his pock- 
ets, looked as if caj)able of doing good service. "We must con- 
fess that we were not very favorably impressed with this specimen 
of the right arm of Florida's civil pow.er. A big negro boy, who, 
in our presence horsewhipped a little one, and boldly returned 
the blows of a colored man who undertook to avenge the small 
boy's wrongs, was allowed to escape. 

A smart, pretty white boy, only four years of age, smoked 
three cigars in the course of a few hours, and was reported to 
have received in the morning at the hands of his father — who 
had charge of the men who unloaded the freight — his morning 
glass of brandy and water! Fernandina, apparently, is a place 
of some three thousand inhabitants, white and colored. It has 
a pleasant look, resting upon a gentle elevation above its harbor. 
In leaving it, we steamed along nearly the whole line of its water 
front, and noticed that its streets seemed grass grown, being 
green with a low vegetable growth of some kind. As it is con- 
nected with the Gulf of Mexico by railroad, it is the center of 
considerable freighting business. St. Mary's river, like the St. 
John's, seeks the ocean through several channels, by which means 
a number of islands are formed— low, green savannahs, here and 
there diversified with forest growths, the trees and bushes giving 
no indications of having ever felt the noiseless^ killing touch of 



384 ISLES OE SCSI-MER. 

the great northern frost king, who so quietly and thoroughly 
paves our roads and bridges, our lakes and rivers in a single night. 

Our passengers thronged the bow of our boat and feasted eye 
and mind upon scenery of unusual loveliness. The shore lines, 
with their white beaches and dark backgrounds, were constantly 
changing in their forms and outlines. Amelia beach reminded 
us as we passed of the pleasure we experienced when driving over 
it a little more than a year before. Our water-way was marked 
by buoys, while several lighthouses proclaimed the fostering care 
of a wise, paternal government, in lighting at night the watery 
highways. We passed within a few feet of a warning bell, so 
hung that the play of the ceaseless tides causes it to constantly 
rise and fall, and, unattended, to ring out upon the waters in calm 
and storm, during the long hours of the day and the darker and 
longer hours of the night, in musical tones, *'Ho! mariners, this 
is the only true way! As ye value your lives, heed me and obey 
my voice !" 

In vain the sun struggled to look down upon this charming 
picture of sea and land. Cold looking clouds veiled the sky. 
Beautiful pelicans sported in the air, amused, perhaps, at the 
frolicsome play of the porpoises in the waters below. Wild 
ducks, obeying some great social law, were seen associating to- 
gether in large flocks, observing the most perfect order, and 
giving to man examples worthy of imitation of mutual forbear- 
ance, domestic peace, and freedom from family jars and internal 
dissensions. Our old friends, the sea-gulls, held not each with 
the rest so close a communion, and seemed to have more individ- 
ual liberty with their unity; but they kept sufficiently near to each 
other to avoid the crushing loneliness of a solitary life. 

Danger ever hovers above and around us, and unseen peril often 
most suddenly and unexpectedly darts out upon us from its am- 
bush. But thus far only two petty annoyances had interfered 
with the deep, strong, and steady current of our jojs. 



ANIiTOYAKCES. THE ST. JOHIST'S. 335 

One occurred at Port Royal, where our steamer was tied up 
all night to the wliarf close to a freight house in which a thou- 
sand bags of Peruvian guano were stored, the intolerable stench 
of which invaded our shij), entered the saloons, took possession 
of every stateroom and remained with us all night. For pun- 
gency and power it certainly surpassed the fifty-nine distinct and 
independent bad smells that formerly regaled the traveler at one 
and the same instant of time in the streets of Cologne. We 
carried away from the Palmetto State only a vivid memory of 
a horrible odor that will last us a life time. 

The other was a plague of insects at Pernandina, where our 
ship was taken captive by great swarms of little gnats, who were 
60 glad to see us that it really seemed as if they were determined 
to literally eat us up. Some hid away in sheltered nooks out of 
the wind when we left, and seized every opportunity to renew 
their acquaintance with the northern strangers. 

Our steamer took the outside route from Fernandina, and for 
some time before we reached the mouth of the St. John's our at- 
tention was called to the fact that the water of the river is carried 
to the north in a well defined stream, strongly distinguished by 
its color from that of the sea with which it refuses to assimilate. 
Fed by vast wooded swamps, great lakes and unnumbered 
tributary streams, the noble St. John's, after rolling in solemn 
majesty through low but picturesque banks for hundreds of 
miles, becomes at last a river of the ocean, scooping out for itself, 
like the Gulf Stream, a channel in the heavier waters of the sea. 

The great rivers of the south are constantly and persistently 
endeavoring to barricade their mouths, as if principled against 
intercourse with the outside world. Channels for commerce are 
no sooner made and buoyed through the great bars and banks 
than they are closed again. The bold navigator is perplexed and 
confounded by changes which are constantly taking place, and 
the soundings of one day are no sure guide for the next. 



336 ISLES OF SUMMER. 

At the mouth of the St. John's the breakers, foaming over 
vast submerged sand' fields, please the eye, but are strongly sug- 
gestive of danger. The tortuous channel was said to be only six 
weeks old. It certainly differed greatly from the one through 
which we were piloted the previous year. Without the aid of 
steam-tugs, sailing vessels must find it very difficult and decidedly 
dangerous to make their way along the submerged banks and 
over the bar. The I'emains of two wrecks — one that of a steamer ' 
— which we passed, bore silent testimony to the perils which 
navigators are here called upon to encounter. A large number ' 
of pilots live at the mouth of the St. John's and study its con- 
stant mutations. They have built up a village on its left bank, 
whicli bears the appropiate name of "Pilot Town." Opposite 
this is the village of Mayjoort, Avhich is inhabited mostl}' by fisher- 
men, whose fishing nets, boats and reels gave variety and interest 
to the view.' 

Soon after we entered the river, a cloudy night deprived uso-f 
the pleasure we had hoped to experience in viewing for twenty- 
five miles the St. John's below Jacksonville. We tied up to 
the wharf at about 8 p. m. 

■ The next day we took passage in the little steamboat that daily 
makes frequent trips to " The Home " (stopping at intermediate 
landings) upon a beautiful bank at the junction of Arlington 
creek and the river St. John's. We landed at St. Nicholas, and 
for a few brief but happy hours observed and tasted the sweets 
of plantation life. A re-union with some old and highly esteemed 
friends "refined the pure gold" of smiling, verdant, blooming 
nature's welcome. 

The river bank where we landed is about twenty-five feet high, 
the top of which we reached by a Avinding path through a wild 
tangle of bushes and vines, covered with verdure and adorned 
with buds and blossoms. Once more upon the land — not in the 



A VISIT TO ST. NICHOLAS. 337 

man-made city, but, to our great joy, in the God-made country — 
how fresh and beautiful everything appeared! We bade the rest 
speed on and leave us to enjoy in silence and solitude the delights 
of the place and hour. Here a little nameless shrub, with its 
curious leaves and fragrant blossoms, called to us from the thicket, 
and climbing vines reached out their tendrils as if to lovingly 
clasp and detain us as we passed. The mocking birds sang their 
varied songs from unseen coverts; high-vine blackberry bushes, 
loaded with green fruit, recalled many a familiar sjDot a thou- 
sand miles away, and faces we desired so much to see again. The 
beautiful and spacious river, with its winding shores and low 
green banks, its little skiffs and occasional steamers, compelled 
us often to stop and look back. In full view, some four or five 
miles away, was the city that we had just left; over our heads 
was a smiling sky, and a sun glowing with a heat that was, at 80° 
in the shade, made agreeable by a steady breeze from over the 
water. Upon the top of the bank large, tall pines, with tops 
crowned with green tasseled leaves, huge live oaks and water 
oaks, some with great clustered stems, one with a spread of over 
ninety feet, and all drooped and festooned with gray moss, 
adorned and shaded the private carriage way that runs between 
beautiful villas and the top of the river's bank. Occasionally we 
rested on the seats which thoughtful hands had placed between 
the trunks of the noble trees, and more deliberately studied our 
novel and fascinating surroundings. Near the dwellings which 
we passed were groves of orange trees, with their waxen, polished 
leaves and opening and exquisitely sweet flowers, from one of 
which alone 2,500 oranges had been recently taken. We saw 
no alligators, but we learned that they were only just awakening 
from their usual three months winter's sleep. Like other rep- 
tiles during this long season of torpor they take no food — thus, 
with them, does sleep anticipate and closely resemble death, 

29 



338 ISLES OF SrM3IER. 

Beneath a friendly and hospitable roof wo slaked our thirst with 
cool and delicious orangeade — a drink differing from lemonade 
in that it is made of the juice of the sour orange instead of the 
lemon. "We were regaled at lunch with oranges such as only 
Florida can produce, and with strawberries of largo size and de- 
licious flavor, taken from vines which were said to yield fruit 
continuously from January to. June. From an orange orchard 
near by we were informed that 70,000 oranges had been taken 
within a few weeks. Before the crop was gathered, the trees, 
loaded with golden fruit, were said to have been marvelously 
beautiful. After a few hours of very great enjoyment, we 
steamed back to the city, where during the evening, in the saloon 
of tho Texas, we vv^ere honored by a call from Gov. Brown, of 
Georgia, an old friend and Yale Law School classmate, some 
members of his family, and his brother, CoL Brown. The Gov- 
ernor, not' only by his eminent success in political life, but more 
especially by the judicial laurels he has won and worn (having 
filled with distinguished ability the oiSce of Chief Justice of the 
State of Georgia), has reflected honor upon the institution in 
which in part he received his education for the bar.* CoL Brown 
also studied law at Yale, and both gentlemen will be pleasantly 
remembered by all those who then enjoyed their acquaintance 
and friendship. Having introduced the Governor to our honor- 
ed and venerable ex-Chief Justice Seymour, to whom by reputa- 
tion he was well known, it was pleasant to witness the play and 
mingling of the intellectual light of these two justly distin- 
guished men. As a young man, the author saw in Gov. Brown 
the promise which has been fulfilled in the golden maturity of 
later years. 

After another night spent at the wharf on shij) board, we con- 

* Tho author lias Irarncd with plcasnix' ?hicu this was written, that Gov. Erown has been 
appointed by the present Governor of Gcor;;ia, to till a vacaucy, a United Stites Senator. 



THE FLOEIDA GULF. 339 

tiimed our voyage in the early morning following, down and out 
of the river into the broad Atlantic. 

The deep solitude of the sky-bound sea was relieved by occa- 
sional white-winged but lonely wanderers, bearing the varied 
products of distant and invisible lands. Dark, graceful smoke 
plumes, at first but dimly seen, revealed the presence of approach- 
ing steamers, and furnished welcome food for speculation. A 
German barque, looking as if it had wrestled with the elements, 
raised its flag to indicate that it desired to communicate with us. 
Having sighted the land after a voyage across the Atlantic of 
more than three thousand miles, its captain wished to ascertain 
as accurately as possible, his whereabouts, and to test the cor- 
rectness of his reckoning. Upon a large blackboard, each ves- 
sel marked and exhibited to the other, first the latitude and then 
the longitude of the place where they met, as indicated by their 
respective logs or records, from which it appeared that the barque 
was fifty miles removed from the position its officers supposed it 
occupied. 

In the neighborhood of Jupiter lighthouse, well down on the 
Florida coast, we met a schooner, one of whose officers inquired 
of us if we were going to Key West. It had no name in sight 
and was in ballast. As it sailed, after parting' company with 
us, first towards the east, and soon, without any apparent good 
reason, changed its course to the south, our experienced passen- 
ger captain, having watched her closely, quickly made up his 
mind as to her character and business. He explained how easily 
but fraudulently a few thousand dollars could be made. "De- 
pend upon it," said the captain, ''she's a bank shark. She hails 
from Key West, no doubt, and very likely has a Key West license. 
She may have English papers, or both English and American 
papers. !N"assau wreckers can't come here — our wreckers would 
drive them off. So at the Bahamas they will not allow oar wreck- 



346 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 

ers to interfere with their trade. They pay sometimes to pilot a 
vessel, and pilot her ashore — then they come in for salvage. 
*' See/' said he '' she has no cargo aboard, and her boat is on her 
davits ready to be launched. You can't keep any account of 
goods taken from a wreck, and, running into Jupiter inlet, it is 
an easy matter to secure the plunder. Depend on't, them fellows 
are wide awake and watching for business. Their vessel shows 
no name and can't be reported. " 

An old resident of Nassau informed us that formerly there 
were persons doing business in that city, who were well known 
to be in collusion with certain ship owners who desired to sell 
their vessel property and cargoes to the insurance companies. 
When one of these men visited New York, very soon afterwards 
New York vessels would be wrecked in the Bahama waters. The 
masters of vessels purposely wrecked their vessels, an arrange- 
ment having been previously made with the wreckers, and a cer- 
tain division of the salvage money agreed upon. It is believed 
and hoped that such cases do not often now occur. 

Having no communication with the silent man at the wheel 
who held in his hands our lives upon the sea, we seldom knew 
precisely where we were, while we " floated like bubbles onward." 
Our steamer's prow still persistently pointed to the south, and 
we skirted the eastern shore of the Peninsula of Florida, in what 
is called ''the Florida Gulf." Along sand beach gave to the 
blue sea a fringe of snowy whiteness. Beyond this, and between 
it and the sky. Southern Florida was sandwitched. A low, nar- 
row, monotonous belt of green was all that we could see of the 
wet, wooded and flowery land, with its luscious fruits^ beautiful 
birds and loathsome reptiles. As we approached the latitude 
of St. Augustine, our course was so far to the east that "the 
shining shore " was with more difficulty discerned. We almost 
envied the few long-sighted passengers who seemed to see and 



THE FLORIDA GfLF. 341 

professed to describe the landmarks which our less gifted eyes 
failed to discern; and wo thought of the holy seers who peer 
into the invisible world, and challenge our doubting faith with 
stories of spirit realms. A delicate blush, like that which lin- 
gers where the sun has set, curtained with rosy light the vanished 
land. Floating in and above this radiant air, as far as we could 
see along the Avestern hem of the bending sky, were soft pearly 
clouds, most beautifully configured and colored, in which seemed 
to flit the happy and viewless spirits of the air. Around us the 
sea rolled in gentle ripples. Low, soothing sounds came to us 
as our beautiful ship cleaved the slumbering waters. The wind 
god breathed softly upon us from the south. So profound was 
the calm repose, all the mighty forces of nature, that at times in 
these latitudes make themselves felt and feared in the hurricane, 
seemed to have been chloroformed to insure for us a safe and 
pleasant voyage. None of our passengers were sick. A musing, 
dreamy spirit rested upon all. Most of the passengers were dur- 
ing the day upon the main deck, sitting upon folding-chairs un- 
der the awnings. Many mused in silence. Those who conversed 
spoke in low tones. Not the slightest excitement was manifested. 
The repose was profound; the rest was perfect. The pulses 
throbbed gently, and the gentlest rt|)ples masked the tides of 
varied thought. In indolent repose, lulled by the softest sounds, 
slightly rocked by the gentle undulations of the slumbering sea, 
we passed the happy hours. The thermometer registered 80° in 
the shade, but the heat was far from being oppressive. The au- 
thor took out his stylographic pen, placed it upon the white 
paper, and watched it while it ran. 

The porpoises, whose gambols had given a pleasing variety to 
our quiet enjoyments, no longer raced with our steamer or leaped 
tmt of the water to challenge our admiration, and extort invol- 
untary and loud applause. But near the close of day they came 



S43 iSLth OF StJMMEii. 

to the surface, leaving the deeper and cooler waters as the sun 
approached his setting, and like a dog before a flying horse, they 
raced with our ship. Directly ahead of and close to its sharp 
iron prow, with unmistakable evidences of pride and joy, they 
led the way, and seemed to challenge us to overtake them if we 
could. It was exceedingly interesting and somewhat exciting 
to observe them at such times. They frequently leaped bodily 
out of the water, and seemed to indulge in a competitive race 
with each other while testing their locomotive powers with those 
of the strange, man-made monster that had invaded their watery 
realm. The sport was continued for many a mile, but like the 
great golden god of day, they retired to depths we could not see, 
and to realms we had no capacity fully to explore. 

We were told by an eye witness in Florida, of sanguinary fights 
between the porpoises and the sharks. Our lady informant on 
one occasion saw three or four of the former mercilessly attack 
one of the latter at the mouth of the St. John's, and the contest 
was continued until the surrounding water was colored with their 
blood. 

In the Florida Gulf we soon parted company with the sea-birds. 
Not a single gull looked to us for supplies. The river St, John's 
probably teems with a larger quantity of food suited to their 
taste and adapted to their wants. 

We missed them much. The ocean was more lonely. It had 
been exceedingly pleasant to watch them while they followed our 
ship, and as some of the more venturesome hovered over us, the 
undulations of their white wide-spread wings seemed like silent 
benedictions. The persistent waving of the unspotted feathery 
arms we gladly welcomed as favorable omens. We were not dis- 
posed to disregard the favorable augury of the beautiful birds 
who so persistently followed us over such wide spaces of ocean 
solitudes. Certain it is that clear skies, smooth seas and fair 



THE GULF STEEAM. 343 

winds came with the gentle white-robed birds. As a natural 
consequence, mind and heart were pervaded with the dead faith 
of old and buried nations. Messages of love and peace seemed 
winged from heaven to earth. Give us, we inwardly exclaimed, 
the old dream of the past, in exchange for some of the fresher 
and more orthodox superstitions of modern times. It certainly 
affords a temporary pleasure to diversify hackneyed beliefs with 
a little of the antique. 

We passed within ten or twelve miles of Jupiter Inlet and 
Jupiter Lighthouse, both being plainly in view. Soon after, the 
course of our ship was altered, and, steaming a little south of east, 
all traces of the Western Continent were lost to view, but low, 
light-colored clouds still curtained the vanished land. 

Nearly all our passengers were upon the upper deck, musing 
in gi'ateful shadows, and, with the thermometer at 80°, feeling 
only an agreeable warmth in the cooling wind. A marked change 
was soon observed in the color of the water. Its deep, rich, 
beautiful blue was unlike anything we had observed before or 
since we left N'cw York. It attracted and riveted all eyes, and 
loosened every tongue. Gentlemen vied with the ladies in ex- 
pressing the pleasure caused by this new sensation. One passen- 
ger, of a domestic tarn of mind, inferred that it was Neptune's 
washing day, and that he had made a liberal use of his indigo 
bag. The mystery was soon explained. We were crossing the 
Gulf Stream; unconsciously we had entered the great ocean river. 
It had gathered up the equatorial heats, and, impelled by great 
natural laws which man has not been able as yet to f ally discover 
and satisfactorily explain, it was executing its great beneficent 
mission, and materially aiding in equalizing the temjDerature of 
regions widely separated. How unlike it seemed to the Gulf 
Stream we crossed a year before! Then we brought with us from 
the frozen north opposing winds — and a just resentment was felt 



344 ISLES OF SUMMEK. 

and seen in billows that hissed and howled, foaming in anger. 
Now, gentle winds, born in the warm tropics, traveled with the 
rolling tide, and hand in hand, air and water were bearing their 
thermal blessings onward. It is theirs to loosen the icy bands, 
and quicken into life the slumbering energies of northern climes. 

At times dolphins played about our ship, and flying fish, like 
flocks of small birds, traversed considerable spaces of air, just 
clearing the waves. *' The dolphin, " said our passenger captain, 
*'is the swiftest fish that swims the sea; where there are flying 
fish there are usually dolphins; the dolphins feed upon them, 
and the flying fish jump into the air and try to get away. " . Vague 
memories of ancient fables came dimly back to us as we watched 
the quick and playful movements of this interesting mammal of 
the sea. The dolphin was a sacred fish in Grecian mythology, 
and gave name if not inspiration to the famous Delphic Oracle 
that made known to mortals the decrees of the invisible and im- 
mortal gods. Modern scientists, upon observing the relative size 
and character of its brain, are disposed to entertain with more 
favor the belief of the ancients in its superior intelligence. As 
with the sea-birds, so with the fish, they stirred our souls with 
the quickening spirit of creeds that flourished in eartli's fresh 
green spring time, and our voiceless thoughts declared — surely, 
these dolphins, which appear to be doing pilot and escort duty 
for our ship, are the lineal descendents of those Avhich, in the 
old days of the old world, were the friends and benefactors of onr 
race, almoners of divine favors and the bearers of messages from 
a world real but invisible; for with them came most delicious 
air, charming skies, and a quiet sea most beautifully colored. 

Some of our sun-sets were exceptionally brilliant and beautiful. 
On one occasion, when a vast shoreless sea had received the day- 
god in its engulfing waters, great golden columns of brilliant 
light, radiating from the place of its burial, lighted up the west- 



■ei:-;i v-^ :: Si-: 






^''^^kh 



<k ^^-'^ \ 



J Ji iiirLei'ton 



Punde roan fi.Cr i sar.d ."Mew Haven . Ct. 



DOLPHINS. 



UsTIGHT OK THE OCEAN". 345 

ern sky, and illumined the ocean's surface with, their reflected 
light. At other times the zodiacal light, for several hours after 
the sun had set, rose like a monument, a huge pyramid of beauty, 
delicate, spirituelle, but well defined, upon the lofty apex of 
which rested the Pleiades. It was first observed by our venerable 
ex-Chief Justice, who seemed delighted to watch it during the 
early evening hours; he appeared to be very much at home among 
the beautiful stars of the southern sky, and to derive great pleas- 
ure in viewing the heavenly hosts, as, arranged in familiar con- 
stellations, they in solemn, silent majesty passed slowly by. The 
beauty of such skies is closely allied to the spiritual; their grand-_ 
eur and solemnity is indeed divine; the undevout gazer upon 
such heavens is mad. But how dwarfed everything appeared 
when we looked down! 

While still at sea, a beautiful silver crescent, like the visible eye 
of some invisible god, gazed from the western sky upon the 
setting sun. It added a new element of beauty to the night, but, 
as it increased in size, many a star retired, and the mysterious 
zodiacal light was unrevealed. It, like the ghosts, exists only 
in shadows. 

On Saturday evening, the 13th day of March, we made" Isaac's 
Light" upon Isaac's Island, one of the Bahama Archipelago, 
and knew that the crossing of the gulf of Florida was, with 
us, an accomplished fact, and that a run during the night of 
about one hundred and twenty miles in the somewhat sheltered 
'* New Providence Channel," among the islands, and towards the 
center of the group, would complete our voyage. We left the 
upper deck, with its brilliant canopy of gleaming stars, and re- 
tired early to our stateroom, that we might secure a good night's 
sleep and be able, at the break of day, to greet the rising sun 
and watch for the first indications of the lovely isle upon which 
Nassau, in the shade of its palms and other tropical trees, re- 
poses. 



Si^ ISLES OF STTMMEE, 

The early Sabbath morn found a large number of our fellow 
voyagers intently scanning the eastern horizon from the good 
ship's upper deck. The usual speculations, inseparable from 
such an occasion, as to the time when we would reach our hayen 
of rest, afforded fit material for the interchange of thought and 
a comparison of views. It was a subject in which all were deeply 
interested, but the weather had been so fine, and the yoyage so 
pleasant, that we felt that in landing we should only exchange 
one form of happiness for another. Our ship was new, scrupu- 
lously neat and clean, staunch and steady, admirably ofl&cered 
and manned, and all its appointments were decidedly first-class. 
So that a sentiment akin to that which one entertains for a beau- 
tiful, spirited and intelligent horse, that has carried him safely 
and ministered to his happiness, sprang up and took firm root 
in the minds of the fortunate passengers in reference to the 
Steam Screw ■ Ship Western Texas. The Texas we felt was our 
(Ship, and to it we seemed to owe a kind of fealty and true alle- 
giance. 

As the morning wore away, our passenger captain, with his 
trained, long-sighted sea-eyes, detected a faint trace of curling 
smoke upon the background of delicate low clouds rising from 
the eastern horizon. This, he assured us, was smoke from a fire 
on the island of New Proyidence. Soon after, his telescopic eyes 
discerned in a white, perpendicular line, about as big around as 
a spider's thread, the coralline lighthouse at the eastern end of 
Hog Island, at the entrance of Nassau harbor. Very soon the 
less visually gifted were able to verify assertions which, to their 
more narrow -vision, seemed to be prophetic — and their faith was 
soon supplemented by actual knowledge. Thus is it often with 
hidden truths and mysteries profound! 

Between 9 and 10 o'clock in the forenoon we crossed the bar, 
and once more xevelled in the picturesque beauty of the winding 



art:tval at n-assau. Mt 

shores, the honey-combed rocks, the stretches of white sand 
beaches, the low green islets, the tropical yerdure, and the spark- 
ling and gleaming waters, dotted and striped *with colors which 
no pen can adequately describe. "VVe seemed to feel their welcome 
in the soft and soothing wind. For men and their works we 
cared little — they were so dwarfed by those which we had left 
behind us. But for the coral isles and keys, and for the elements 
above and around them — the handiwork of the world's great 
Architect — we entertained a genuine affection, and our hearts ex- 
perienced a thrill of pleasure as we gazed upon the beautiful 
panorama which was gradually disclosed as we neared the place 
of our landing. 

It being Sunday, a much smaller crowd than usual awaited our 
arrival upon the neighboring streets and adjacent wharfs. A few 
young negroes, black and glossy, nearly nude, were perched like 
great frogs upon the dock, and soon amused the new-comers by 
diving for pennies and other coin. The first on shore to recog- 
nize us, as we scanned the duskj upturned faces, were those little 
black dots of children — Moody and Sankey. They bowed and 
ismiled and waved their hands, while eyes and teeth gleamed with 
unmistakable pleasure at seeing once more those who had listened 
to and taken an interest in their songs. The tall, manly form 
of our old yachtsman, Capt. Sampson, with his neat nautical blue 
uniform and '' Triton" hat, was a very noticeable landmark, and, 
when he discovered us, he triumphantly exclaimed, as one of his 
hearers informed us — ^'Dere's a gentleman who's consigned to 
me; he knows de Trident; he ken tell you about her; he sailed 
with Sampson when der Trident was first built; he's consigned to 
Sampson — sure!" He was not long in finding us, and, with a 
hearty shake of the hands, interlarded his speech of welcome with 
those graceful, courtly airs and diplomatic phrases which, un- 
studied, he knows so well how to employ. Seizing our bundles 



g4S ISLES OF SUMMER, 

he escorted us to the best and largest carriage at the landing, 
and loaded ns up. Soon a man appeared who claimed ours was 
his carriage, and that from the bows of the steamer he had en- 
gaged it before any one had a chance to put a foot on the dock, 
and had put his bundles in it while he went for the other mem- 
bers of his party. ''Can't help dat," said Sampson; "dis car- 
rif!ge belongs to dis gentleman — why, he spoke for dis carriage 
las' year! Driyer, 5'ou take dis gentleman and dese yere ladies 
to der hotel,"— and he did so before avc had fully time to con- 
sider and decide the doubtful question of our right to keep jdos- 
session of the vehicle. 



CHAPTER XXIt. 

Pleasant Return Voyages. Waiting in Florida the Arrival of Summer at 
the North. Making Apologies to a Tropical Sun. The Steamer City of Aus- 
tin — Capt. Stevens. A Leaf from the Chapter of the Captain's Nautical 
Experiences. Little Sankey Transported and Transplanted. Reciprocal 
Welcomes. 

"Where'er I roam, whatever lands I see, 
My heart, untraveled, fondly turns to thee." — Goldsmith. 

Having embodied in the preceding chapters all the informa- 
tion we obtained concerning Nassau and tlie Bahamas during our 
visits in 1879 and 1880, which we deemed would be useful or in- 
teresting to our readers, but little remains to be added before 
we lay down a pen which we have found it a difficult matter to 
stop. 

After returning to Jacksonville in April, 1879, we spent sev- 
eral weeks in Florida enjoying its climate, and waiting for the 
time to come when summer at the north should be firmly estab- 
lishedo We soon learned to love the dreamy lakes and languid 
rivers; the deep solitude of the pine forests; the wild, weird 
beauty of the cypress swamps; the gracefulness of the palms and 
palmettos; the grand old water-oaks and live-oaks, all profusely 
draped, festooned and decorated, from largest branch to smallest 
twig, with Spanish moss, so gray and sombre; the stately mag- 
nolias, royally adorned with dark waxen leaves, and large, white, 
floral incense cups; the orange orchards, whose leaves, and flowers, 
and fruit seemed intended to minister to the happiness rather of 
349 30 



SSO ISLES OP SUMMED. 

gods than men; the floral treasures everywhere scattered with 
lavish hand; and the birds, unsurpassed in plumage and un- 
equaled in song. We lingered for a while, reluctant to leave, 
after many of the larger hotels were closed. At last our time to 
depart came, and we made a part of the extreme rear of a great, 
but generally intelligent and cultivated army, which, having in 
the previous fall and winter fled from frost, was now being driven 
and scattered by a nearly tropical sun. 

Dimpled all over with smiles, and reposing in calm and quiet 
majesty under an atmosphere that glowed with the genial warmth 
of May, the ocean, like a good foster mother, rocked us gently 
upon its bosom, tenderly floated us hundreds of miles homeward, 
and at last landed us safel}^ upon old familiar shores, that had, 
in our absence, exchanged their robes and wrappings of ice and 
snow for beaiitiful carpets of verdure of the purest and brightest 
emerald. 

Our second visit to the Isles of Summer was less pleasant than 
the first by reason of the heat, for the same causes which pro- 
duced the remarkably mild winter of 1879-80 at the north, gave 
to Florida and the Bahamas weather exceptionally warm. As 
we had anticipated Avhen we turned our backs upon the northern 
March in the manner wliich we in our last cha|)ter described, wo 
escaped a great deal of exceedingly disagreeable weather, for 
winter and summer, as in other years, struggled for the mastery 
upon the neutral domain of spring, while fortune favored both 
sides with characteristic fickleness. But when in Florida and 
Nassau, both upon land and water, the thermometer during the 
greater part of every day stood at eighty and upwards in the 
shade, and hot, sultry, southerly winds were more than usually 
prevalent, we were at times led to exclaim, 0, for a cool puff of 
northern wind, and carpets of beautiful snow; and mountains 
lofty and snow-capped! 0, for an exchange of lazy and indolent 



FROM N^ASSAU TO FERKAXDIN-A. 351 

air for an atmosphere that vitalizes the blood, stimulates the 
nerves, gives birth to noble purposes, and inspires with a laudable 
ambition! 

Afterwards, when the weekly mail arrived, with letters and news- 
papers from home, and we learned how badly both March and 
April had conducted themselves at the north in our absence, we 
immediately rushed out from beneath the grateful shade of tropi- 
cal trees, and, with heads bowed but well protected, we made 
to the hot sun, and to the beautiful lands that panted in its fierce 
and scorching rays, our most humble and sincere apologies. 

At the conclusion of our second visit to the Bahamas, we 
had a most delightful voyage in the Western Texas, of the C. H. 
Mallory & Co.'s line, from Nassau to Fernandina. We were 
favored with clear skies, while beneath and around us the At- 
lantic was at rest. All the storm gods of the sea were indulg- 
ing in deep, profound, voluptuous sleep. Our ship rivaled the 
ducks upon sheltered lakes in the quiet grace with which it 
passed over the smooth waters. We spent much of the time 
during the day dreamily watching the sky, the birds, the mur- 
muring waves, the fish, the sea weed, and passing vessels. The 
glory of the stars and of the Southern Cross added brilliancy 
and gladness to the night. 

"New stars all night above the brim 
Of waters lightened into view; 
They climb'd as quicklj', for the rim 
Changed every moment as we flew." 

There are often among the passengers on shipboard 'Hate 
birds," sometimes, upon the land, called "larks," who linger 
behind after the staid, prudent, and conservative have retired, 
and, with songs and stories, and fragrant Havanas, endeavor to 
get more than the average amount of enjoyment out of hours 
generally devoted to sleep. But the passengers Avho sailed with 



352 ISLES OF 8UHMEE. 

US to and from the Isles of Summer were so far liomogeneoua, 
that none had occasion to complain that the hilarity and good 
fellowship of a few were carried so far into the night as to en- 
croach upon hours generally devoted to sleej). 

Sailing in the path of an ocean current which furnished our 
ship with a part of its motive power, and aided by a wind that, 
while it warmed, wafted us on our way, we were not long in 
reaching the Florida coast. The trip was also materially short- 
ened because health and happiness winged the Hying hours. 

About four weeks after our last arrival in Florida, we proceeded 
by rail from Jacksonville to Fernandina, and intercepted the 
steamship City of Austin, Capt, Stevens, of the 0. H. Mallory 
& Co.'s New York and Nassau line, which, on its way to New 
York, had stopped there for passengers and freight. We found 
it a good ship, well officered, manned and equipped, though the 
closing of the Eoyal Victoria Hotel caused it to be crowded with 
passengers, but as during the voyage the weather was pleasant, 
little inconvenience was experienced from that cause, the cases of 
sea sickness being very few in number and mild in type. The pas- 
sengers spent the"days upon deck, and many of the evenings also, 
notwithstanding the heavy dews. The profound mystery which 
seems ever to brood over the ocean and penetrate its profound 
depths, is greatly intensified at night. We were much impressed 
with it as our gallant ship tore and leaped into the dark, leaving 
behind a brilliant but troubled path of foam and fire. Around 
it the phosphorescent light gleamed in the waves and sparkled 
in the spray. A halo of white and luminous foam girdled the 
ship, which, with its long and brilliant train, made it seem, 
prehaps, to the marine monsters miles below under its keel, like 
a strange comet of the sea. 

While sitting in the evening upon one of the camp stools with 
which the deck of the Austin was supplied. Captain Stevens oc- 



THE captain's story. 35^ 

casionally favored us witli his presence, and we succeeded in ob- 
taining from him some interesting stories of the sea, founded upon 
his personal experience. He is a medium sized, strongly built, 
calm, cool-headed, self-possessed man, on whose judgment and 
discretion we think one may safely rely in time of danger. His 
hair is perfectly white, but not with age, as he is only some forty- 
two or forty-three years old. Having spent most of his life 
npon the water, and been a number of times shipwrecked, the 
hardships he has endured have left their record upon his hair. 

One evening while the captain was making a tour of inspection 
of the ship, he stopped for awhile and occupied a seat on deck 
beside us. We were between Capes Lookout and Hatteras, and 
sailing over what the sailors call, on account of the foul weather ■ 
often experienced there, ''the ragged edge of the ocean." The. 
perils incident to and inseparable from the navigation of the 
ocean by steam having been referred to, Captain Stevens, in 
illustration of the subject, said: '' Disasters occur upon the water, 
sometimes from unexpected and inexplicable causes. A few 
years ago I commanded a steamer which foundered and went 
to the bottom when the weather was fair and the sea smooth. 
It occurred at a place very near where we are now. She had 
not been, so far as I knew or was informed, weakened by 
storms, or damaged by any of those accidents to which steamers 
and other vessels are sometimes exposed. In the night, some 
two hours or more before daybreak, the engineer sent me word 
that the ship was leaking, and the water steadily gaining upon 
the pumps. I found that the entire loss of the ship was only a 
matter of a few hours time. I gave directions to have a report 
sent to me every fifteen minutes of the progress of the water, 
and commenced at once making arrangements for abandoning 
the vessel. The second oflBcer asked if he should not awaken the 
passengers. I replied, no; let them sleep on — and they did. 



■354 ISLES OF STJMMEE. 

They no doubt would have had less pleasant dreams if they had 
known or suspected that the ship all the time was gradually set- 
tling down deeper and deeper in the water. I sent up signal 
rockets of distress, and kept the crew busy. All the life boats 
wore made ready for immediate use, and when every practicable 
measure to ensure the preservation of life had been taken, the 
passengers were awakened and informed of the condition of the 
ship, and of the steps I had taken to prevent any loss of life. 
Although greatly surprised, and somewhat excited, there was no 
panic, and all behaved well. In the dim morning light, a steamer, 
that had noticed our signals, was seen in the distance approaching. 
Her captain, upon learning our condition, agreed to receive us 
on board, and did so. The transfer was quietly and safely effect- 
ed. No boat was swamped, and everything passed off as quietly 
as a military dress pai'ade. After the personal safety of all the 
passengers and crew was assured, I proposed, as my ship was still 
afloat, to make an effort to save the baggage. This I succeeded 
in doing; but I had no sooner returned with the last boat-load 
of trunks, when the abandoned steamer sank out of sight." 

The quiet, modest way in which Captain Stevens described this 
thrilling episode in his life upon the ocean, in connection with 
the facts of the case as he had described them, very favorably 
impressed us. Coolness and courage in time of peril must accom- 
pany and supplement sagacity, prudence and a thorough knowl- 
edge of one's business, in order to qualify a man to proioerly fill 
the resj)onsible position which he occupied. 

Little Sankey was included among our passengers. He was 
the proteg6 of the captain, who, having been attracted by his 
shining qualities, concluded to transplant the little tropical 
negro, and see what effect cultivation upon American soil would 
produce. Good citizens are sometimes made out of less promising 
materials. Haying become acquainted witli many of the passen- 



Welcomes fHOM stttp to sHOJifi. S55 

^ers in the court of the Royal Victoria Hotel, he received, par- 
ticularly from the ladies, attentions which helped to palliate the 
heart-aches incident to a sudden sundering of all the tendrils of 
affection that had bound him to the small coral island upon which 
he was born and reared. Words of kindness were mingled with 
the small coin given him from time to time, partly as a reward 
for such services as he was able to render. Sometimes he was 
seen reclining upon packages of freight, taciturn and sober, 
apparently the victim of two maladies — sea-sickness and sickness 
of the heart. He, however, manifested as much fortitude and 
cheerfulness as could be expected under the peculiar circum- 
stances in which he was placed. 

Although during our absence new scenes had afforded us much 
enjoyment, while relaxation from business and a change of air 
had been of substantial benefit in a sanitary point of view, our 
hearts throbbed with no small degree of pleasurable excitement 
as we approached the city of New York, through shores which 
art and nature have done so much to adorn. Long Island and 
the Island of Manhattan, as seen from the deck of the Austin, 
belted Avith forests of masts, enlivened by numberless steamers, 
each with passengers enough to make a good sized town, and 
covered with the immense warehouses and palaces of merchant 
princes, together with the constantly increasing evidences that 
we were in close proximity to vast, swift, and ever changing 
eddies and currents of human life, strangely and sharjjly con- 
trasted with all that we had seen and experienced among the Isles 
of Summer, upon the peninsular of Florida, and in ocean soli- 
tudes. 

Our return to the north was well-timed. The morning was 
lovely; the air of a most agreeable temperature; the sky cloud- 
less. Nature, with smiling face, welcomed us home. The little 
dimpled waves glistened and gleefully danced in the sun-light. 



356 ISLES OF StrMMER. 

Brooklyn from her heights, Jersey City from her lowly position 
upon the shore, and New York from behind her shipping, seemed 
to waft ns pleasant greetings. Our fellow passengers thronged 
the deck of the Austin, and exchanged cards and congratulations. 
We again found that the love of native land is intensified by ab- 
sence. Exile hallows and makes home more sacred. The earth- 
ly home suggested the heavenly, and we repeated the poet's ap- 
propriate and tuneful numbers — 

" Lone voyager on time's sea ! 
When my dull night of being shall be past, 
O may I waken in a land at last, 

Welcome as this to me I" 



Pn 9 1947 



